Axel at 22 months

The past week has been such a blast with our little guy. Now that Axel is feeling better he is really blooming in his personality. He is such a little crowd pleaser. He knows when to give or blow kisses, or when to make the cute little grin with his head tilted to the side. He knows when to start dancing and singing or even how to tease you to make you laugh. He officially repeats EVERYTHING we say, which is really cute, most of the time. This morning as he was helping me make french toast by throwing the bread into the egg mix, I said "gentle" Axel. He said "gentle," as he threw in the next piece. I think he understood what gentle was by the time we were finished.

Besides Axel's vocabulary continuing to bloom, his climbing skills are finally improving as well. I haven't been able to tell if it was fear or strength that hindered Axel's climbing, but either way, it is much better know. He is able to climb in and out of his car seat and in and out of his high chair as well as up onto the couch. It is really funny because he tells us what he is trying to do as he does it. "Pull, mommy", as he tries to pull himself up on the couch. Now, that doesn't mean he wants help. He is only letting me know that he is pulling himself up.

As you might guess, his tantrums are kicking up in frequency because he wants to do more things by himself. This morning the two tantrums were about his sippy cup, and cutting his french toast. He wanted to have his old sippy cup and not his new one. I decided he was done with the soft top sippy cup and ready for the hard top sippy cup, whether he likes it or not. So he cried for a few minutes and gave into his thirst. Now, with the cutting of the french toast, the end result was him not eating breakfast. The good thing is I ignored the tantrum, helped him cut it when he asked for help, but then he still won in the end by not having to eat it because he was mad at it :) Kids sure are funny.

Axel continues to love books and reading. We are going to the library every week or two and picking out 5 new books for him to read. He absolutely LOVES the library and wants to bring ALL the books home. He finally is catching onto numbers, though, and understands that he can only bring 5 home (per my rules because I don't want to have to keep track of anymore than that :)- ).

Axel is really into stickers now and has fun playing with a sticker book he received from his great Aunt. He has so much patience and ability to concentrate it amazes both Keith and I.

Axel is also getting more playful at the park. He can go up and down a slide 10+ times now, which is really fun to see him say, "again, again".

Well, speaking of Axel, he just woke from his nap. He is talking to himself and his animals this very minute.....so cute! sorry for the lack of pictures. I should have more next week as all of us are feeling better :)

Ok, enjoy the game tonight!

Strep throat and Ear infections

As you can guess from the title, Axel and I had strep throat. thanks to daycare I believe. I thought we all had a mild cold until Monday when my cold went south. I stupidly managed to work through the fatigue, sore throat and body aches thinking that I would feel better the next day. It only took me three days of sleeping sitting up (because I couldn't swallow) and Axel nearly two weeks of poor eating and sleeping habits to finally make it to the doctor.

Thursday was officially doctor day where we discovered Axel's ears were both infected. No wonder why he has had trouble sleeping and eating. This was the first time his fever didn't spike and the first time he remained happy and playful during the day. His past ear infections he has had a high temperature and become quite inactive. I will have to remember this for future illnesses. At any rate, we managed to start him on antibiotics immediately. He still weighs 20 lbs. this time 5.5 oz. I think that is almost the exact weight as the last time we went in for an illness (November). After Axel's nap we went to my appointment. I wasn't as lucky and didn't find out until Friday morning that my strep culture was positive. Good thing is Axel and I are on the mend. Keith has also had a cold and luckily his strep culture was negative. Looks like his stellar immune system is back.

Despite Axel's decreased appetite he always has a sweet tooth. He may not eat the finished product, but you can almost always count on him to help lick the bowl or spoon. I do believe he is doomed to have this sweet tooth indefinitely, as both Keith and I have a major sweet tooth.

No matter how good or bad Axel feels he almost always wants to give a "huggie" or be hugged himself. Here he is giving Louis a big hug.

Last Sunday we did manage to visit Auntie and Uncle Ryan. We had a good time, although quite laid back. Axel was too fascinated with the cats to want to go anywhere. Here he is trying to get the cat to come out from under the sofa.

And here he is trying to coax the cats to come out and play. He regularly says, "kitty sleeping", because that is what Auntie's answer was to where the cats went.

Axel is quite the helper. He loves to help mommy cook or clean. He had lots of fun making butternut squash, apple turnovers with me.

Well, I am exhausted and need to get to bed. We are hoping Axel will only get up once tonight. Last night was the first night he only got up twice. Otherwise, he has been up 3 to 5 times a night. The better he sleeps, the better I sleep and the quicker we will all be better. Here is to a good week and good health!

Axel

We had another mellow week, which has been really nice. Axel is still developing his brain at light speed and learning and saying more and more words. He can now say "Lauren", which is the name of his babysitter. He knows who she is and actually says that he is excited to have her come over to play. Keith and I have had the luxury of riding together 3 weeks in a row, and hopefully next week will be 4. We are trying to take advantage of the dry spell and Lauren is trying to save up money for an iphone, so it is a win, win situation.
Axel is becoming a little more adventurous at the park. He has asked the past 2 times we have gone to go on the swings. He laughs and says "weee" and then after 30-60 seconds he says "all done". I think the funniest thing about the whole situation is that he knows or thinks it should be fun and does all the right gestures, but really doesn't like it. I have a feeling he gets dizzy like I use to, but I guess I will have to wait to find out until he can communicate that to me verbally.

I am getting lazier at taking pictures, or the camera isn't charged, or I left it in the house......yes, excuses. so I have to make a conscious effort in the next couple of weeks to take more pictures.

I am not sure if I mentioned it before, but both daddy and Axel are growing their hair out. I thought this picture did a good job of showing how long it is getting.

Axel is off from "school" tomorrow so daddy and I are each working half a day to cover child care. We have a trip planned to visit Auntie and Ryan next weekend, so hopefully that will lead to some good photos and stories of Axel. I leave you with a cute video of Axel being Axel. You can see his little game he plays when he doesn't get his way and the huge grin and laugh he does when he finally does :) Have a great week and sorry so short!

Getting back into our Routines

Nothing exciting happened this week. We did our best to get back into our daily routines. Axel cried every day when I dropped him off at school (daycare). The two week break was a bit long for him. Of course, he always loves it there after the initial shock of having to leave mommy or daddy.

The weather is really cold here. Keith and I have been freezing during our commutes to work. The highs have been in the 40's, although the forecast says the high should reach the 50's. Axel doesn't even seem to notice. He always manages to find some existing water to play with. His hands and feet almost feel like ice by the time we get into the house. They turn completely red. I really need to find some small mittens for him. Not that he will actually keep them on, but this way he will at minimum have the option to have warmer hands. :)

Axel ate a ton of food for 3 or 4 days, which was really exciting. He is back to his small appetite the past couple of days. Hopefully, he is going to hit a growth spurt in the next month or two so he can catch up to his peers. His classmate at school who is 6 weeks older than him has over 10 pounds and 3 inches on Axel. The kid's parents are giants compared to us, towering at 5'11 and 6'4" so that does make me feel a little better. :)


We didn't do too much this week. Axel and I went grocery shopping on both Thursday and Friday, as well as for a bike ride. The rest of the 4 day weekend was consumed with lots of play. He is really taking off with his imagination. He talks on his cell phone all of the time saying, "Hello" and "goodbye". He actually said that he was talking to Grandpa, when I asked who was on the phone. He loves his trucks more and more. We are trying to work on his pronunciation since it sounds like "frucks", but sometimes I can hardly hear the "r", so you can understand my growing concern. Another word that he says often that doesn't quite sound like the word is sit. For some reason an "h" is thrown in there.


As I say every week, Axel's vocabulary continues to take off. He now repeats almost everything we or someone else says. While I was cooking the other day I was completely surprised to hear him repeat Alphie, his computer friend. Alphie said "shapes", Axel said "shapes". It was really cool. Also Axel actually interacted with Alphie for the first time. One card had 4 animals and where they live on it. Axel did great. He easily pointed to the jungle for the monkey, the farm for the pig, etc. I had to keep showing him the flashing light next to the answer and low and behold he did one entirely himself without me showing him the bottom to push. I am so amazed at how quickly his mind is developing.

Night times have been better. He is no longer screaming for an hour +, but he has woke the past two nights for a cup of rice milk around 2am because he didn't eat dinner due to over excitement. We are still working on getting him to eat with company over. The football game didn't help, as Axel loves football and watching the guys "tackle" each other and he loves screaming "touchdown".

Axel is getting better at climbing. I found him on this file box playing with his bicycle.

Axel continues to want to watch the Grinch in the morning. The only difference about this week vs. last week is now he says "grinch" and "movie" (moomie). He has also graduated from his little chair to daddy's chair. I think he has the dazed look down pat.

That's all for this week.

Happy New Year!

Axel turned 21 months on New Year's Eve. With the passing of another month Axel has really blossomed into a young boy. Axel had 2 new top teeth break through the gums the past week or so. I am excited for him to have all of his upper teeth, except his 2nd molars, of course. The bottom two that he is missing look like they are trying to make their way through as well.

Besides teeth, Axel's vocabulary continues to grow at a rapid pace. He continues to love to say multiple syllable words. Caterpillar, butterfly, bicycle, tortilla, are just a few of the many "big words" that he likes to say. I do believe Axel knows almost all of the animals names and sounds. Those who live on land and in the water. He knows all of his basic colors, blue, green, yellow, red, purple and now black. He is working really hard at trying to learn the alphabet. It is really cute watching him trying to sing along with one of his toys. I am sure he is months away from learning it, but for the time being it is great to see his little mind working hard.

Axel is also Mr. puzzle man. He has mastered all of the basic puzzles where you place a piece with the matching picture. He is now onto the big 24 piece puzzles, as of today. He was able to get a couple of the pieces together and then he worked hard at making sure mommy struggled to get the puzzle done for him by taking the pieces away and then telling mommy to hurry up and finish.

Axel continues to love to read. We took him to the library for the first time. He picked out 4 new books. Of course, those 4 books are the only ones he wants to read. I catch him "reading" books by himself. He is really good at books with one word and picture on them. He gets really excited when he knows all of the pictures in the book and can "read" by himself.

On the down side, Axel continues to struggle with eating. It could be because he has been cutting 3 teeth over the past few weeks, but I also think it is his age. I get extremely frustrated at trying to get him to eat "real" food. He also doesn't want to eat meals, but rather snack all day. Yesterday he ate 2.5 pieces of bread, half a rice cake and 4 cups of rice milk. I am sure he ate a bit more than that, but the items were so minuscule I can't remember what they were.

He is also trying to extend his bed time over the past few weeks. He has a couple of games he likes to play. One is taking a sip of milk and then I say good night and walk out of the room. Right when I shut the door he cries for more milk. He was doing this about 4 or 5 times. I finally put my foot down and told him he needed to finish his milk or I wasn't coming back. So the next game he thought of was crying for more food. He will say cracker, or tortilla until we bring him that food to eat. Last night I let him cry for 30 minutes hoping he would either cry himself to sleep or understand that I am talking business here. Eat your food during meal time, drink your milk and then go to SLEEP! I have gotten a bit heightened about the subject because since Christmas night he has been sleeping horribly. He has been waking one to three times per night, except one night where he slept his usual 11 hours straight. His nap times are good and consistent, but I think it is the fact that he is pushing his bed time out by 30 to 60 minutes with the food and milk games. Hopefully, another night of letting him cry and me making sure that he eats as much as possible during the day will help him get back on track. I start work tomorrow again and this sleep deprivation thing is harder as Axel gets older. All of my new mommy hormones and powers have officially warn off, as I can no longer handle the broken sleep with multiple wakings.

The weather has been off and on gloomy and rainy so we have been mostly staying in doors. Keith and I did get out for an EPIC bike ride on Friday, as we were finally able to get a sitter. It has been at minimum a couple of months since we have ridden together. We decided to go explore and boy did we explore. We were out in the middle of no where on private dirt roads that were rocky and muddy and not intended for our nice road bikes. We did get a beautiful view of the entire South Bay looking all the way to Monterey Bay. The climbing was wonderful, it was the descending down 10-20% gradient dirt/mud roads with huge rocks and boulders in the way that was the issue. Luckily, we made it home safely and just in time before Axel woke from his nap!

After our epic 4.5 hour bike ride we took Axel and Louis to the dog park. Both of them were having a great time until Axel got tackled twice by a more than friendly Boston Terrier. The first time I was caught off guard, but I was able to catch Axel as the dog put its two front legs onto Axel's chest. He cried, but laughed that He was tackled with hugs and kisses. Luckily, Daddy and Axel have been playing tackle for quite some time so Axel was a great sport about it. The second time was completely my fault. I thought the Boston terrier was entertained by another dog on the other side of the fenced in area. Axel went running after another small dog and before I could get to him that same Boston Terrier sent Axel flying backwards. It was just like in football where the guy looks totally limp. Again, Axel was a great sport about the whole thing, but that was the final straw that sent us home. I am so lucky that Axel is completely okay. I thought for sure he hit his head or would be traumatized by the whole thing.



Grandpa Paul left early on Tuesday morning. Here is Axel saying good bye the night before. I am so proud of how loving Axel is. He is so good about giving hugs.

Before Keith's dad left they went to Toys R Us and bought Axel a chair and some books. Since Axel started watching TV almost 2 weeks ago we decided it was best to get him a chair to teach him not to stand directly in front of the TV. So far our planned has worked brilliantly and Axel sits an appropriate distance from the TV. He loves the chair so much that a few times he has moved his high chair and put this in its place so that he can eat dinner in it.

Well my Christmas present is officially done. Our linen closet is complete with shelves and all of our towels, sheets and blankets are nicely put away. here is the picture before we put the shelves in. Hopefully I will remember to take a picture of the completed project soon. It is not a big deal to most people, but for Keith and I to do this by ourselves from scratch without any fighting was a huge accomplishment. We also did it quickly, within a couple of weeks time frame, which is also a miracle in the Szolusha household! Thanks Sweetie for the wonderful Christmas present!

Now I wanted to save the best for last. Axel loves music. He started dancing around age 9 months, but stopped for some time. He recently picked up dancing again. Here he is with some new moves he picked up, I believe, from Dr. Seuss' "How The Grinch stole Christmas". This has really been the only "TV" he has watched over the past two weeks.

And better yet, as I mentioned earlier he is starting to try to sing. He started with attempting to sing his ABC's but then I caught him trying to sing along with his new Raffi CD he got for Christmas. Soooo cute! Thanks Josie and family!

Have a wonderful week and remember to start writing 2011.....the hardest thing for me to remember!!!!

Christmas and More!

We hope that you all had a lovely Christmas. We sure did. Axel is such a joy and it was extremely fun to see what joy he had celebrating Christ's birth. We can't wait to see our traditions transform over the years as Axel grows and matures himself. I am short for time so I am going to write a quick summary of the past few days and then add a bunch of fun pictures.

Thursday, Keith's dad, Paul, arrived from Florida. We had yummy Pad Thai, homemade by Keith, for dinner that night. Friday, we were able to celebrate the birth of our dear Lord, at church. Axel did great and we all loved the service. We came home to a late turkey, stuffing, sweet potato meal.

Yesterday we woke up and had yummy hot cocoa while opening gifts. Axel played with his toys, while I painted my Christmas present (my soon to be linen closet) and Keith went for a run. We all then headed to Sacramento. Axel had a blast with all of his family. We were pleasantly surprised to have almost my mom's entire family as well as Grandpa Brian's kids there. Brian and Mom made my favorite "surf and turf" meal. Paul had a great time joining my family and it was one of the best Christmases I have had since returning to California 8 years ago.

It didn't take long for Axel to get the hang of opening presents.

One of his favorites was the cute animals he received from Grandma/pa Goodrow. Here he is with "doggy".

Louis was content "watching" us open our gifts as he chewed on his :)

Axel also loved the hate that Grandma Goodrow made him.

Axel's next favorite new toy was his first train tracks/set that Grandma/pa Burgess got him.

Axel had trouble leaving his toys, but his five new animal friends were enough to entertain him on the car ride to Grandma Susan's house. Once there he did a great job of entertaining everyone with his dance moves and humor.

Axel was attached to Auntie all day long and had fun opening gifts and eating dinner on her lap :)

One of the funniest things Axel did all day was try to ride his new animals. I think I mentioned last time that he loves to play "horsey" on mommy and daddy. Well, he had fun trying on piggy and doggy as well.

This morning we all got up and went to a local park. There Axel got to see and play with the ducks, on the play ground and ride the kid train around the park. As you can tell from the pictures, Mr. Duck, really liked us.
Meet Mr. Duck!

Try to find Mr. Duck in most of the pictures :) We all thought about bringing him home, but decided the four of us and the dog were enough to fill the car as it was.

Where did duck go?

There he is...come on let's go to the train!

What a fun weekend!

I had a lot more photos and updates from the beginning of the week since I was home on Monday and Tuesday, but I didn't want to make this and epic picture post so maybe I will try to post again on Wednesday. Just to give you a little hint.....Axel has more teeth coming in and more cuteness as ever!

Have a great week!!!!

A bunch of nothing?

I don't have many photos of this past week. For some reason time keeps on ticking and most minutes of the day seemed to be filled. I am not quite sure with what, but there is always something. Even if the something is nothing :)

Axel had a great week at school. He had been quietly playing in his chair for over a month due to several illnesses in a row, but the little guy fully came out of his bubble as he was up and about mingling and playing with all of his friends. Apparently, all of his friends would bring him toys when he stayed in his chair. He was almost like a king for a little while, but now I am happy to hear he was up and out of his lovely plastic chair :)

Axel is all talk these days. The little guy now has full conversations with or without another person involved. Keith and I can't help but crack up at some of his monologues.

Bunny, Llama and donkey are still key toys this week, but Lion has also been added to his trio. Axel will go around the house saying "roar". I find it very amusing as he does this with most animals. He often calls the animal by the sound they make instead of their name. I am not sure if this is intentional or if he really forgets a duck is called a duck, and thus calls a duck, quack, quack.

Speaking of animals, Axel finally decided he wanted to play with Mr. Caterpillar who normally lies along side him on his dresser/changing table. He dragged him off his dresser and then proceeded to carry him around the house.

He finally decided the guest bedroom was a good place to lie him down to play with him. Here he is pointing out caterpillar's red nose. Axel really notices and likes red noses now that he sees them a lot, being the Christmas season and all.

After giving Mr. Caterpillar a big hug, he finally decided it was time to bring him into the crib with him for nap time. Well, I do believe that Mr. Caterpillar has a permanent residence in Axel's crib until he becomes more of a crowd then a cuddly friend.

Axel was really cute earlier today. Daddy put his cap on him and then he played, "steal the bone" from Louis. After succeeding in taking it from him, Axel then decided to try to bite it himself. I wasn't able to capture his sour face after biting it, but I think he realized that it was strictly for dogs to chew and not humans to eat :)

Well, Christmas is in just a few short days. We should have lots of great pictures as we spend the Holiday with family and friends. Have a very Merry Christmas as I won't likely post before the big day!