Demolition

Well, Father's day came and went in a blur. Keith and I went for a ride together that was cut short by my wheel breaking and then we spent the rest of the day together in the backyard. We started our big project of demolishing our back yard.

Now, 9 days later we no longer have any brick (-5000 or so) or our big deck. Every night Keith and I worked 1-2 hours after work and my 4 days off this past weekend I put in 4 hours of hard labor each day.

God blessed me and Axel with 3 days of nearly 3 hour naps which allowed me to get so much work done. The other hours Axel helped me by picking up the hundreds of screws I unscrewed from the deck. He would place them in his bucket or "special box". He would also tell me if I missed one or say "careful mommy" when it looked like I was struggling to get one out.

We ended the week of fun labor by making a party of it. We had a handful of friends over to help us finish the final demolition of Axel's old playhouse and the hauling of the rest of the brick Keith and I weren't able to bring to the front yard. We were so excited last night to finish. We treated our friends and awesome neighbors to huge burritos, beer, cake and ice cream and they all had the pleasure of embarrassing me by singing happy birthday. Keith and I feel so blessed to have friends and neighbors care about us enough to help us do hard work!!! The good thing about us getting done is we found out the paver guy messed up his start date and has us scheduled a day early!!! That means they are starting tomorrow and our new patio and walkways will be done by Friday!!! Our lawn and irrigation guy is also going to come by tomorrow night and work through part of the weekend so that he can finish up his work by July 10th so that we can throw Keith a 35th and 36th birthday party (since he was out of commission last year) to the friends who labored to help us with the yard! I can't wait to buy Keith's new grill and start our monthly BBQ's this summer.

So, on to Axel. Axel has been such a trooper. He has grown up so much in the sense that he deals with change very well. I have been explaining to him that we are redoing the back yard so when it came time to actually get rid of the deck, brick and playhouse not even one cry was let out. Now there were tears that mommy was too busy to play with him, but I solved that by getting our neighbor to watch and play with him when he started bugging me non stop to "come here".

Speaking of neighbor, Axel absolutely adores his new sitter. We have been using Annika for 2 or 3 months now and he has grown very fond of her. We make almost daily trips to her house (2 houses down) to see if she is home. The great thing is she loves him too, so if she is not home when we go visit she will come over and say hello to him, even when she isn't scheduled to watch him. We are soooo lucky to have her. The greatest thing is she has all 4 years of high school so Axel getting attached to her isn't a bad thing!!!! She also just went to a weekend of more babysitter training so now she feels more comfortable with infants and is infant CPR certified. Now all we have to do is make an infant for her to watch :)

Other cool new things that Axel has done/achieved the past two weeks are.....1. He has ate entire 1/2 sandwiches, both turkey and egg
2. He has consumed his first rice dream ice cream cone

3.He can count to 12
4. He can sing his abc's (minus EFG and LMNOP is a big mumble) but all of the other letters he articulates quite well :)
5. He has trained the neighbor's cat, cuddles, to lie down for him as he pets her.

6. His climbing skills continue to improve, although his height still is a limiting factor.

7. He met and played with a bird at Whole foods

8. He continues to climb through the doggy gate

and door, but now that he is getting bigger it takes him a little more thought. Here he is stuck half way as he was trying to back into the house after going half way through and realized he shoulders were too wide. "Axel stuck mommy"


9. Axel still loves Louis. He always asks, "Mommy can I play with Louis?, " or, "Can I play in Louis' room?"


10. He continues to love bubbles!

11.And finally Axel is still really itchy. He doesn't seem even close to growing out of his dairy allergy or his eczema.

Have a great week. Make sure to check back in a couple weeks for pictures of our new yard!!!!

Home

Axel loves being home. I think he is going to be a lot like his parents in that sense. We are just people who love spending time at home, whether that includes playing games, having people over, or cooking dinner. Life is good when you can lounge and do what you want to do when you want to do it. It is for similar reasons I think Axel loves being at home. "I want to play with Louis mommy." "I want to go outside, mommy." Axel go to the park and play in the sand, mommy." "I hungry mommy." The list goes on and on. He loves being at home so much, it is often difficult in the mornings to get him to day care happy.

This morning was one of those mornings he was not a happy camper. First, I rudely woke him up. Then I asked him if he wanted to wear his dinosaur pajamas or if he wanted to change. He said he wanted to change, but then threw a fit when I changed him. He wanted bunny to stay in his crib sleeping, yet he wanted bunny to go with him. He wanted to stay home and play with his toys, but that wasn't an option.....he cried the entire time getting dressed, riding the mile to day care and 5 minutes at daycare. I finally got him calmed down and Angela took over as she always does a brilliant job. I really can't blame him for loving being at home.

Speaking of home, we finally have a fully functioning computer, our fan for the kitchen came in, since our old microwave fan went on the fritz a couple of months ago. We are trying to install the fan and are looking for what to put on the wall as a back splash to the stove since the granite that is there was cut out for the old microwave and now we are left with a 2x 1.5 foot section of 20 year old wallpaper :). We are patiently waiting the death of our refrigerator since it is on its last year of life. We are also patiently awaiting the fence guy to contact us and get started in replacing our fence. And finally, we are patiently getting quotes for the demolition and remodeling of our back yard. We are about 6 quotes in and still aren't getting the numbers we hope for, or getting people we think will do quality work for the money we are asking. It is really funny because these lawn and irrigation people think we are crazy....we are surely the only Californians we want more grass and less landscaping. We want our children to be able to play baseball, volleyball, soccer, etc. The more grass the better.

Ok, back to Axel. Axel and I visited Grandma Susan this weekend. We were only there for a day and a half, but we had lots of fun. We went out for dinner and Axel did the best he has ever done. he sat in a high chair for the first time and he ate the food at the restaurant. I had a small tortilla made for him and he made it into a chip taco. He only ate half of it, but I think he really enjoyed it. I missed out on a couple of great shots with Grandma and Axel, but I did manage a couple of shots of Axel himself.

Axel has been playing more with our neighbor who is a year older than him. Max is a little more bossy and wild and Axel often gets frustrated while playing, but I think it is the start of a beautiful relationship :) Here they are along the trail that runs behind the park that is across the street from our house.


Axel loves to be the center of attention and "funny man". No matter if we are at a barbeque or at my mom's work meeting stranger's Axel knows how to make people laugh. He does this by making one of his funny faces or by sticking out his tongue, or by doing his favorite magic trick.....hiding an object in his hand and asking, "where did it go?" Here is a picture I managed to get of him being silly in his stroller.

We went to my annual work picnic on Sunday. I took several pictures, but not very many turned out. Here is one of the few that "kind of" turned out. Axel had a blast playing as usual. He tends to focus on the sand, but we managed to get him running up and down hills and playing tackle with daddy in the grass.

Just in case I don't get a chance to post on Father's day I wanted to include a great picture that I managed to take when Grandpa Paul was here. Here is to a great weekend for all of our Father's next weekend!!!

Axel and Many New "Firsts"

Since our last post we have been quite busy. Paul, Keith's dad, was here for 10 days. He just left early this morning. Keith was able to take the entire week off so the three of them were non stop with games, fun and activities. We took Axel to the annual Heritage festival in Saratoga, Saturday afternoon, after picking up Paul from the airport. Axel sat on school desks and colored.

I thought he looked super cute and grown up.

Last Sunday, the four of us went to a Giants game with our buddy and his two kids.

Keith picked out stellar seats just a few rows up from right field. I have never sat so close out of all of the professional baseball games I have attended so it was a really cool experience for me too. Axel did great considering he did not get a nap because of the excitement of going. He also did not get a nap the day before because he was so excited that Grandpa Paul arrived.

Axel was fascinated by these two A fans!

We took Axel over to the mini baseball field and he got to hit a ball off a tee and run around the bases.

I was surprised at how well he did considering he had never done this before.

Axel did get tired of sitting in our designated seats after a couple of hours. He entertained himself by cleaning up other people's peanut shells and by crawling under the seats. The last hour he watched Dr. Seuss books on my phone and played his Monkey game. After 9 full innings and 4.5 hours he was ready to go. he fell asleep immediately in the car while we listened to the last two innings on the radio. Keith and Paul took Louis for a walk while I had the pleasure of getting Axel bathed, fed and to bed during his complete meltdown. Luckily, the screaming stopped once he was in bed and he slept brilliantly well for 12 hours!!!!

On Monday Axel went to daycare to help get him back into his routine. I was hoping he would go again on Tuesday and Wednesday, but daddy had too many fun activities planned.

Tuesday, Axel went miniature golfing for the first time. Apparently he got the hang of it pretty quickly, but had trouble only hitting his ball. I think Keith said it took them 2 hours to play the 18 hole course!

Wednesday, Keith and Paul, took Axel to the Discovery Museum. He had been there once before and loved it. Unfortunately, it was field trip day and Axel got pushed around quite a bit by the older kids, so all three of the boys were ready to go after just an hour or two.

Thursday, Axel got to see the Ocean and go to the beach for the first time. Keith and Paul drove over to the coast while I had the privilege of riding their for the first time. It was a beautiful ride. Axel also got to see his doggy kite really fly with the heavy winds provided by the beautiful Ocean. Axel was not afraid at all. Keith told me that he fell right in almost immediately upon their arrival. I only got to see the aftermath of the freezing, shivering two year old. He was such a trooper and asked daddy to change his clothes without any tears or complaints.

There were quite a few tears as we left because Axel was having so much fun playing in the sand. However, he did great on the drive home and ate his lunch in the car and then went right to sleep for his nap once we arrived home. Keith was able to ride home.

Friday, we mostly stayed home because of several appointments. We got a quote to re-do the back yard, we had our garage door opener fixed and a new couch delivered. Keith bought me a beautiful leather couch that has a recliner on each side to match the recliner we bought him last year, for my birthday. It is a month early, but he wanted to take advantage of his time off of work. We had Kerry over for dinner and had fun playing Blockus. We had played Blockus on Monday night with Paul, Keith and I and Tuesday night when we had Tyler over for dinner and made him play as well. We decided it is the Szolusha family game for sure, having received it from Josie, Keith's sister. Axel loves playing with it as well.


Saturday we went to another BBQ at Tyler's house and yesterday we took Axel to Vasona park. It is amazing to think that Axel went to his first baseball game, played minature golf and went to the Ocean for the first time all in one week!
It is really cool to see him having so much fun.

Axel continues to change rapidly. He is ALWAYS talking. His sentences are becoming quite complex as he is able to tell you exactly what he is doing, how he is feeling and what he does and does not want. I wish I was able to catch it on video, so you can hear how grown up Axel has become.

He continues to also be the funny man. He loves to make people laugh. On Saturday at the BBQ he stood by the screen door away from everyone and started making a really funny face while making funny sounds. He did it over and over again until everyone was laughing.

Ok, we are still having computer problems which means it is very difficult and time consuming to get pictures uploaded and transferred to the computer that has internet so I will likely not post for another couple of weeks or so, but do check back soon because I may surprise you!

Mr. Personality

I cannot stress enough how much Axel has changed over the past month or two. He is more and more a little boy than a baby. He is absolutely his father in every way. He has so much personality. No matter where we go he says, "Hi" to almost everyone. He smiles and makes funny faces at people. He sings and dances as well. And then when he thinks he is funny or he thinks you are funny he says,"Silly Axel" or "Silly Mommy". I was super shy growing up so it amazes me at how much he likes people and interacting with others. Axel is gaining confidence in his physical abilities as well as his social abilities. He climbs into and out of the bathtub, his high chair, the couch, benches, over rocks, down steep hills made of dirt. It is cool to see him do more adventurous things without asking for help. The cool thing is he is one of those kids who asks for help rather than throwing a tantrum when he does need it. I am just glad he is not asking as much :) Axel loves to walk and run. His running is actually getting pretty fast where both feet are off the ground for a split second. He ran almost an 1/8 of a mile yesterday. He regularly walks a quarter to half a mile without an difficulties. Axel is also continuing to eat more and more. The past two days have been awesome food consumption. I thought I captured a video of him downing an egg sandwich, but for some reason it did not get downloaded. (the king and queen of last night's BBQ) As far as what is going on and things we have done, it is pretty much same old. Keith and I are still racing. Axel is loving watching and cheering for us. The only difference is that we were all sick for the past week or so, but everyone is on the mend now. We have had more friend gatherings, with a great BBQ last night. Axel was an angel and fell asleep beautifully at our friends house and then went right back to sleep at 11pm after being awake for the 15 minute transition from house to house. What a champ. We will definitely be able to do more with friends knowing he is so flexible with sleep now. We continue to do the same routine of going to the park and running errands. He loves to grocery shop and help me pick out food. He still loves water and playing in it. He most often likes to strip down to his diaper or nothing :)
We are having so much fun! Sorry for the short post, but we are going to be pretty busy for the next month or so. Next up, Paul, Keith's dad arrives next Saturday. We have tour of California, Giant's baseball game and lots more planned.

Here is Axel singing

Easter, bike rides and more!

It is hard to believe three weeks has passed since my last post. I have thought each weekend I would have time to post, but the time never came. We have lots of fun excuses, like our computer dying on us.....getting an iphone so having to transfer photos from the iphone and the camera to the computer that doesn't get internet to the external hard drive to the lap top that we are now using that can get internet if hooked up to the ethernet cable (the wireless is broken on it :)) In addition to the computer fiasco our microwave sparked and smoked itself to death last week and part of the fence has officially fallen down. All of these things are in the process of getting fixed, but relying on other neighbors to pitch in the 50% cost and the home warranty company to make and appointment and to replace it takes more time than we have patience for.

Good thing is we have been having lots of fun. Axel has had the pleasure of going to bike races every weekend the past three weeks. He has been having soooo much fun! The first one was in Santa Cruz, the second in Menlo Park and yesterday in the Livermore area. He is so cute. He cheers "yahhhh", rings the cow bell, and yells "go Brianne" just like daddy. I remember the first time he said "hi Brianne" 2 weeks ago. I was trying to figure out how he knew my name. Apparently, he was absorbing it with all of the cheering at the bike races. Now when he cheers he no longer says mommy, but Brianne. He was so rev'd up after the bike race yesterday that he sang the whole way home and didn't nap all day. Instead we played in the sprinklers and washed the car for 2 hours.

Speaking of racing I just wanted to share how loved I felt yesterday as Keith and Axel were in the feedzone in my first road race in 3 years. 3 years ago I won this race and yesterday it took every ounce of mental, physical and emotional strength to fight to stay on. I was suffering/hurting the first lap. I thought I was going to get dropped the second lap. We had a breather with a slower third lap. The fourth lap the selection of top 6 riders rode away on the climb and I was left in a group of 4 that soon grew to 7. I tried with every ounce of energy to stay on, but finally "blew up" at about mile 60, which was 3 hours into the race, and exactly the length of my long ride each week. The last 6 miles were long and slow and the climb that I flew up last year to win the race I think I did twice a slow. I was so proud and honored to see Keith and Axel with their shirts off in the feedzone flashing me to victory....of finishing the hardest race I can remember. I do believe I would have given up in the second lap if they weren't there supporting me. Thanks! I love you both so much!!!!

Now lets back track to Easter. Axel had a wonderful Easter with lots of our friends to play with, church and 2 Easter egg hunts. We did an Easter egg hunt indoors

with the eggs that we colored

and a hunt out side with the plastic ones.

I filled the plastic ones with gummy bunnies and quarters and one special one with dark chocolate chips.

Unfortunately, mommy wasn't very smart and he got the chocolate chips first so every egg he opened he was a bit disappointed there was no chocolate in it.


He did like the money though. He couldn't wait to put it in his piggy bank. Mr. Piggy is almost full so Axel keeps asking when we are going to dump out the contents and count the money. Daddy told him he will get to go buy a toy and mommy told him he gets to keep it safe in the bank. Hopefully, he will get to do both :)

Axel's imagination is really blossomed over the past three weeks. A couple of weeks ago he wanted to put his sweat shirt on Louis. So we did. Louis was a good sport and Axel thought it was great. Apparently, Louis also wears 18 month clothing :)

Here Axel climbed into the laundry basket and then demanded "up mommy". So I carried him around the house and spun him in circles until we were both dizzy and laughing hysterically.

We have a little trail behind our house with a water retention stream that fills up each rain season and then dries out. Over the past few months Axel has become more and more intrigued with throwing rocks in it. We now have a daily ritual of going to throw rocks into the stream.

The biggest change I have noticed over the past month is Axel is much more confident and adventerous. I was so proud to see him figure out how to climb down this hill to get to his favorite rock area. In the past Axel would scream "mommy do it", but not anymore!

A few weeks ago Axel learned about static. We played for nearly an hour a couple days in a row inside his tent. I would let go of a piece of my hair and we would watch it "fly" to the side of the tent. Occasionally the hair would fall to the ground and we would have to find it.....or I would have to pull another hair off of my head :) Here Axel is concentrating on a single piece of hair.



Axel's speech has also really improved over the past few weeks. Keith rarely asks me what he is saying now because he articulates so well. Day care also is constantly telling me at how well and frequently Axel is talking. His sentences are also becoming longer. He regularly talks in 4 to 6 word sentences.

I could go on and on with all of the things that we have done and the changes that are taking place, but this post is already getting quite lengthy. Hopefully, I will find time to post again next week so I won't miss out on documenting these changes. Oh, I did want to mention that Axel surprised me today with his ability to recognize that his lovey, "bunny" wasn't the same. His first bunny was so dirty and in need of a few repairs that I got out the back up bunny. I have used the back up bunny before, but didn't notice the difference until Axel pointed them out today. First, he wanted to know what happened to bunny's hands. I told him I fixed bunny so now bunny has two hands (since a stitch had come out before and the hand blended with the arm). Also he kept tracing over bunny's mouth. Sure enough the original bunny has a straight mouth and the new bunny's mouth makes a "V" like he is smiling. Good thing is he decided to accept bunny's changes.
Ok, Have a great week!