Winnie The Pooh

The new grass was finally cut after three weeks last Saturday. It was so nice. The whole family loves the new yard. Here is Keith and Louis playing in the yard before it was mowed for the first time.

Saturday morning Keith and I were able to go on a ride with his college buddies. We had a lot of fun, but Axel had more fun than us. When we returned we found Axel's hair up in a "pony tail" and a glow in the dark bracelet around his wrist. WHAT!!! Well, I still haven't heard the reason for the pony tail, but the bracelet is really cool because it does glow in the dark so I could understand why Axel liked it so much.

Axel has been fascinated with candles and night lights for about a year now. Every time we go into the "sea room" he always takes the whale night light and plays with it. Here he is in deep thought about his beautiful light, minus the fish attachment.

We had been struggling with dinner and bed time routine for the past few weeks. Luckily I finally wised up and decided to give the ultimate of all decisions. I told Axel he could join us for dinner or play with his toys. The catch was that if he did not eat dinner his movies were going to go away until he did eat dinner. The funny thing is he has eaten dinner all week without a fuss, but at the same time has not watched a movie or even asked once for it. I will definitely wait until he asks me to watch a movie.

I mentioned the Winnie the Pooh that Axel found at my Aunt Gina's house. Well Grandam Sonia fixed up Pooh's nose and mailed it to us. It arrived yesterday. I thought Axel would be really excited, but he just showed about 20 seconds of excitement and then went about whatever else he was doing at the time. However, when book time came Axel was really happy to have Pooh there to read with him while daddy read a Winnie the Pooh adventure.

Well, this morning the first thing Axel wanted to play with was Pooh. Axel also wanted to take Pooh on our bike ride and then he wanted to take Pooh into the grocery store.

When we got home from our ride and stop at Safeway we took Louis for a walk. I gave Axel the choice to leave Pooh at home or carry Pooh with him. He decided he wanted to take Pooh with. Axel made it to the driveway before complaining that Pooh was too big to carry.

So I gave him the choice of bringing Pooh back into the house or to continue on carrying Pooh. He decided to continue to carry Pooh.

Pooh eventually ended up on the park bench while Axel played in the park and Louis sniffed around. I was really proud of him for suffering the consequences. He did a great job of getting Pooh up and down from the bench as well as carrying Pooh home.

Axel continues to do well with the potty. He had his 3rd accident this morning in bed, but only 3 accidents in 3 weeks is much less than I expected for going cold turkey.

Axel started the "why" phase a couple of days ago. I thought for some reason this wasn't suppose to start until age three, but somehow we lucked out. We are all getting about a hundred "why" questions for everything. It makes me crack up when he asks "why" a dozen times for the same answer.

Last I leave you with a great picture of Louis. Louis is quickly approaching his 9th birthday in October, but still gets misjudged for a puppy all of the time.

Potty Trained!

Yes, ladies and gentlemen. It is official. Axel is potty trained. I say it in the past tense because in just 12 short days Axel went from being asked and placed on the potty every 1 to 2 hours to going all by himself. This includes both peepee and poop, as well as naps and night time. We feel so very lucky and blessed that he picked it up so quickly. He has had two accidents early in the morning in his crib, but we have a great speed wash that is done in 25 minutes, so I am able to get his bedding washed and in the dryer before leaving for work. Not an inconvenience in the least bit!

It was this past Thursday, day 10, when I claimed Axel was potty trained. I was doing the dishes after breakfast and Axel was playing with his Blocks, when I heard him running and singing Axel go poo poo. By the time I reached the bathroom, Axel was already playing naked with his toys and his pants were on the ground and his poo and pee flushed down the toilet. I approached him in amazement asking if he went all by himself and he said, "Axel went poo poo and pee pee." How cool is that!!!! I love his routine of dumping out his potty and him placing it in the sink and then we wash his hands and his potty and he puts it back. I hope he continues with this and the initial fun and charm doesn't wear off.

Other exciting news is at a friends birthday party, Axel not only wished Lucia happy birthday, he also played in the water with all of the other kids. This was the first time since Axel's birthday that he has been okay with another person having a birthday. He now says, "Axel birthday is all over." and I say, "Until next year." And then Axel smiles understanding that it comes every year. This was also the first time that Axel has played in the water structure with other kids.

He also did it again at the park that we go to that has the same water structure. Unfortunately, this week he asked to go home after 15 minutes. I think he wanted to go home because he wanted to "go potty at home" and not because of the other kids, but I will have to wait and see next week. It is such a huge break through because Axel always gets intimidated by other kids and ends up just watching them play or going to a place in the sand where he can play alone in peace without the other kids running into him or pushing him around.

Axel's night time routine has turned into a complete nightmare since we came home from Chicago 12 days ago. He screams every night and wants to play all of these different games to extend his bed time. Luckily he is slowly getting the hang of the fact that we mean bed time is bed time and his screaming/crying only lasted a few minutes tonight.

Eating at night has also become a nightmare the past week or two. We put him to bed one evening without dinner, but ended up feeding him in his crib and then having him cry himself to sleep. We think he is slowly learning that dinner time means dinner and not playing. If it doesn't totally improve over the next week I think we will put him straight to bed without any food to see if that is the magic trick to get him to eat instead of goofing off.

Another big change is Axel no longer wants to be in his high chair. He now stands on a "big boy" chair and eats his meals. He actually asked me to put his high chair (that is really a booster chair) into the attic. He clapped when I came down :)

On a complete opposite note, he does not want to get a big boy bed. He says his crib is his bed, so I think we are going to have to wait a little longer before transitioning him to a big boy bed, which is fine with me if he keeps holding his urine all night.

Axel continues to get better at puzzles, counting and the alphabet. He recognizes a handful of letters and loves to "read" to me. He has also become a singer. He use to only sing at home, but now he sings at the grocery store and day care, which is fun for all to hear...especially when it is nice and loud!

Axel and daddy have really grown close over the past month or two. Axel is showing daddy a lot more affection and asks for daddy's help and time with him a lot more. It is really fun to see and I am glad that he is becoming less of a mama's boy.

Speaking of Keith, today is his one year anniversary of health. We are so happy that he is doing well and we hope he continues to be healthy for years to come. Thank you all for all of your prayers for him and please continue to keep him in your prayers.
Have a great week. Next up, is Keith's and mine 3 year wedding anniversary. It is hard to believe we have ONLY been married 3 years because I feel like I have been with him my whole adult life.....ok, maybe I became an adult 5 years ago at age 27 :)
They have been such great years.....and we have grown so much. May God bless us with more years of growth and happiness.

Backyard, Chicago and more

Lots has happened since we posted last. Keith had his birthday, or should I say Axel had his 3rd birthday of the year (his, mine and Keith's).

The backyard was completely finished just in time for our little get together to celebrates Keith's special day.

We love our new walkway from the front to the backyard. We even have an area for our garbage, recycle and yard waste cans. It is so nice not to have to fight the fence or the old brick patio now that both are new and operating at full capacity.

The backyard is our dream with 1500 square feet or so of grass. We both grew up with a nice size backyard with grass where we were able to play sports. We wanted our children to have the same. Louis has really taken to having grass too. He loves to eat it which I think it super funny!


Before leaving for Chicago we had a baby shower we attended. Our close friends are having twins so we are really excited for them. Axel had a blast.

It is amazing how much Axel looks like Keith now.

Monday the 11th we left for Chicago, or should I say Carol Stream, to spend the week with Grandpa Bruce and Grandma Sonia and Sonia's family.

We had a great time with Grandma and the other Grandma (a.k.a Grandpa Bruce). On the first day we went to one of the only local parks with sand. Here Grandpa is showing Axel how to dig with the big shovel. Unfortunately, the sand was short lived because it was covered in bees. Maybe that is why no other parks in Carol Stream have sand :)

Axel had fun showing Grandma how he plays telephone with Daddy.

Axel had no problems convincing Grandma to go down the tunnel slide with him when mommy chickened out. I do want to mentioned that yesterday when Axel and I were at happy hollow I did managed to conquer my fear of going down a confined tunnel as it was the only logical way down after climbing the mess of ropes that was even scarier for me as I am afraid of heights as well. Good thing I managed not to disappoint the little guy.

Grandpa decided to join in on the fun by going down the narrow tunnel slide. I was quite impressed as was Axel and Keith!!!

On Wednesday, we went to visit my best friend from college who lives only 15 minutes away from my parents. Axel had so much fun playing with her kids toys and really did not want to go home.


On Thursday four of us went mini golfing while Grandma Sonia played in a golf tournament. It was a rough start to our 18 holes, but Axel decided he wanted to have fun and play after a little pep talk from me.


Throughout our stay Axel made sure to help both Grandma and Grandpa with the watering of their plants and flowers. Here is just one occasion where he was helping Grandma out.

On Friday we headed to Utica where we stayed at Dad and Sonia's "villa". It is right near Starved Rock, a national park where they had their wedding reception at 22 years ago!!!. Axel had fun playing with Grandma and Grandpa. Here they are playing airplane.



Keith and I had a great time going on long hikes together through Starved Rock, while Grandma and Grandpa took Axel to the Arcade and for rides on the "train" they had that provided transportation from the cabins to the lodge.




On Saturday we headed over to Gina's, Sonia's sister for a BBQ. Axel had so much fun playing with all of her children's toys and meeting and playing with all of her animals (2 dogs, a cat, a guinea pig and fish). The two biggest hits were Cory's old wooden train set and huge stuffed Winnie the Pooh that talks. Cory is now 23, I think, but you couldn't tell because both sets of toys were in great condition, except for a little cut that Winnie the Pooh had on his nose.

But Gianna and Grandma Sonia had Pooh fixed in no time. Of course, after Axel politely ask Great Aunt Gina to please help fix Pooh.


We ended our stay there after a dip in the pool. Axel took to Gianna, Gina's youngest, right away, especially in the pool. He also did great in his new bathing suit vest the Grandma Sonia bought after reading our last post about my fears of a 2 year old in the pool.

It was so wonderful seeing the Eicks and Elias'. The Szolusha's had such a great time we can't wait to go back, besides, Axel loved making Grandpa Sandwhiches!


This week Grandma Susan came for three days to watch Axel since Keith and I had to go back to work and daycare was closed for another week. The two of them had a great time. Grandma Susan was generous enough to start potty training Axel this week. I had promised daycare that we would start during the two week break and since we were in Chicago last week this was the only other time to start. I am super proud of Axel because he did great with Grandma and has continued to do well over the past two days with me. He even went in public yesterday at Happy Hollow. I brought our little travel potty chair and Axel peed in a bag next to the big potty in the public restroom. He is still afraid of the big potty, but I know that will come in time. Today we actually had to come home from the park because he didn't want to use his portable chair or the big potty, but atleast he didn't have an accident! I am kind of thinking the past 5 days have to be a fluke of good luck because he has been holding his urine all night and during nap time. I am afraid he is going to put up a fight next week when he goes back to school or start going during the night or nap time again. Let's keep our fingers crossed!

Happy 4th of July

This week has been action packed. Our patio is finished and our new sprinklers are already in the front and backyard. The yard won't be complete until this coming Saturday, but we are really excited it is more than 60% complete. The new patio looks really good, it is just hard for me to get use to looking at a completely different backyard.

I am sure once the grass and the new shrubs/trees/flowers are in it will be more aesthetically pleasing, but nothing fancy like it was. Just a plan, simple fully functioning backyard for games and BBQ's.

We celebrated the 4th of July yesterday with my mom's family.

We had a blast playing our annual match of croquet.

Axel had a great time for most of the day despite his crazy schedule. Besides helping with our game of croquet Axel had fun terrorizing everyone with squirts of water that were not always welcomed by all who received them.

It was still 95 degrees out when we were playing so it wasn't that bad to get cooled down a little.

Axel's crazy scheduled consisted of a 20 minute nap on the way to Sacramento and then a late nap from 440pm until nearly 7pm. We were hoping he would sleep almost until dark so that way he could hang out with the adults and watch fire works. Too bad Axel doesn't quite like fireworks yet.

I think the loud noises is what scared him. My mom and Brian always buy a bunch of fireworks that we do ourselves for about an hour until the big overhead fireworks begin. It only took 2 little fireworks going off for him to ask to go inside. The good thing about him not liking them is we were able to head home at 10pm, which meant we got home at midnight instead of 1 in the morning. It was really good that we left then because Axel was up the entire time. He had fruit snacks, pretzels, rice milk, etc. He said he was tired, but he just loves being curled up on his tummy too much to fall asleep in his car seat. On a positive note, Axel controlled his crying and he really didn't melt down until 20 minutes before we arrived home. He also did great going right to sleep as soon as we got him into his crib.

On Friday and Saturday Axel and I went to my friend's pool. Keith joined us on Saturday after his ride and Axel had so much fun. It was cool to see the transition from being afraid and not wanting to go in to full on wanting to jump in like the big high school boys he saw jumping in. I really enjoyed going to the pool, but it is really nerve racking as a parent knowing that it only takes one careless moment of not paying attention for something really bad to happen. I am definitely looking forward to Axel learning how to swim and float as he gets older.

Friday afternoon before heading to the pool Axel and I went to costco to pick up a few things. Axel was so funny. He decided to lie down in the shopping cart and sing and point to the different things he saw.

On a walk earlier this week Axel decided he needed to take his dog for walk along with Louis. When we were in the sun he would put his doggy inside the bag and say, "too bright doggy." When we would go into the shade he would say, "ok doggy, you can come out. We are in the shade now."

He continues to be Mr. funny man just like his father. I leave you with a clip from My birthday on Tuesday where it took almost the entire day (both before and after work) for Axel to wish mommy a happy birthday since he insisted that it was his birthday!