Oakland Zoo and more

This post is going to be a long one with lots of photos because again, time has gotten the best of us. We have been busy, busy and trying to enjoy as much of the busy as we can.

I will start a couple weeks back. We had a play date/dinner with Rishaan and his parents. Hema made delicious enchiladas and Axel enjoyed fish sticks in a tortilla while Rishaan ate his usual dinner.

The boys continue to play well together. The fights and competition for the same toy is almost entirely gone. I feel like they are both maturing as their interactions with each other are becoming more sophisticated. They are almost always engaged in the same play and hardly play next to each other. The first few times they played together, over 50% of the time was side by side play. Now they want to interact with each other the entire time. This past Friday, a couple of days ago, Axel had a huge break through. He said, "I am ready to share my toys with Rishaan. Can Rishaan come over here and play tonight?" Typically Axel does great at Rishaan's house, but takes over with the bossiness and control at home. On Friday, I could hardly tell there was two almost 3 year olds in the house. They even managed to do a couple of puzzles together without any competition or fighting. I was so happy and proud.

Axel continues to have a love/hate relationship with Louis. He mostly loves him as you can see above, but every now and then when Louis is getting "too much" attention from mommy or daddy he gets jealous and says he doesn't like Louis.

Axel absolutely loves the park across the street from our house. The sand is still his favorite part. His imagination is blossoming and recently we built a big mountain and "train tracks" for his trucks (pretend trains). It is often hard for us to leave the park because he doesn't want anyone to ruin his creations, but I remind him that we can always recreate it another day.

Axel is much more into independent time and play. I have really noticed a big difference over the past month. Instead of getting upset that mommy or daddy are unavailable he chooses to entertain himself. The picture above is showing him a few nights ago while Keith and I were eating dinner. Axel finished early and was bugging me to read him the new books we found on his bookshelf. I told him once I was done eating I would be happy to read to him. Well, he sat down and proceeded to go through all of the Magic Bus books in the box. He entertained himself for 45 minutes. It was really nice to talk with Keith and I was so excited he was into the books I didn't want to interrupt him. Of course, I had to eventually interrupt him for bed time, but he was excited to finally read "what the picture said".

We received a gift card to Crate and Barrel for Christmas so we decided to head over to the local store and see what we could buy. We hardly ever go shopping. Axel was thrilled to go up and down the escalator several times as well as see all of the cool kitchen supplies and furniture. He told us he found his new bed and wanted to take the above bed home with him.

Yesterday we headed up North to go to the Oakland Zoo with Auntie and Ry Ry. Everyone had a blast.

Uncle Ry Ry and Axel are such a cute duo. I love how much Axel loves to hang out with Auntie and Uncle.

We saw energetic monkeys, gorillas, tigers, bears, snakes, turtles, reptiles, elephants, giraffes, walliroos (sp?), ostriches, ect.

Axel played on almost all of the structures in the children's section of the zoo. Here is Auntie and Axel on the turtle.

Axel and me on the red frog.

Axel in the turtle.

Ry Ry and Axel having fun.

Axel coming out of the reptile building through the little door.

Axel willing and without coaxing or asking climbed up the tree slide by himself.

And played with Auntie inside the fake big tree trunk.

He bravely stepped on the frog lily pads with the assistance of Auntie.

The highlight of the day was the train ride. The 4 of us squished into the second row as Axel loves to be near the train whistle.

After the zoo we went to Ick's sandwich shop. There Axel had his first lollipop. As you can tell it didn't take him long to get the hang of licking it.

Here Axel is relaxing while enjoying his apple caramel lollipop.

We had so much fun. We can't wait to go back. Next time we will definitely stay longer to make sure we get to enjoy the carnival rides as well as see all of the animals.

Ok, time to watch the superbowl. Go Patriots!

Big Boy Axel

We have great news family and friends......Axel is officially over all of his food allergies. The ironic thing about the testing that we did today showed that he developed a slight sensitivity towards peanuts. The doctor said that there is a high false positive on these tests. Our plan is to not completely avoid peanuts, but to reduce Axel's exposure and monitor him. In this same way we are suppose to slowly add dairy and soy back into his diet. Well, I am not much of one for moderation and so to celebrate Axel's great news we had my favorite childhood food for lunch, macaroni and cheese.

Although we are super excited that Axel can now eat almost all foods, we did find out he is just like his father and allergic to many environmental allergens. He is allergic to grass, weed, trees, mold, etc. The good thing is now I know his break outs are do to the environment and not food. We are going to have so much fun seeing him enjoy the foods that we enjoy. I will also have a lot easier time preparing food. :)

Axel asked for a hair cut on Saturday night. He was incredibly cute. It was about 8:30pm and I was stressed about him getting to bed when he said, "mommy I need a hair cut now." I told him to ask me tomorrow. While I was out riding he asked daddy and daddy said, "you have to wait until mommy gets home." Well, sure enough he remembered when I got home and we cut his hair. He told me exactly what I could cut, how much and what I was not allowed to cut. Daddy helped me finish his hair cut after a couple hour break because Axel cracked and wouldn't let me cut the other side of his hair. It looked pretty funny until daddy came to the rescue!

As you can see Axel likes the back a little longer and he likes his bangs on the shorter side. I get a kick at watching him look at himself and do really cute things in the mirror and then crack up at what he just saw himself do.

Axel truly is a funny man. He continues to love to make funny faces, or sounds or laugh boisterously to get attention. It is true. Some people are just born funny and funny is my favorite little boy!

Axel continues to love chocolate and sweets. We often have to bribe him with sweet incentives. This is not something that we are proud of or want to continue to do, but sometimes it is nice to know that a little chocolate proves a little cooperation!

Today we found out that Axel weighs 25 lbs with shoes and clothes on and is 36 inches with shoes on. The medical assistant documented his height as 35 inches because of his shoes, but didn't subtract weight for his shoes and clothes. Why is that? Why do they care about the height being more accurate than weight? That totally bugs me. Good news is he is growing.....slowly but surely!!!!! I am secretly hoping he will have a huge growth spurt now that he will be getting more fat and protein from dairy and less sugar from all of the non dairy, non soy foods.

We are off to another play date with Rishaan. Have a great weekend and lets hope for another good weekend of football. Go Patriots and 49ers!

California Winter

The days are passing quicker than I can keep up with so I apologize for the delay in posts. We have been busy with playing and socializing. Axel loves having picnics for lunch. He makes phone calls to Auntie and Annika with his cashier station check out gun.

Axel and Rishaan have lots of play dates. They are becoming best friends quickly. It is such a joy to see how much they like each other and how well they get along. I have been noticing that Axel is somewhat of the boss and Rishaan is extremely good at going along with Axel's games. Hopefully, this will balance out more over the years.

One of Axel's favorite things to do is play in the leaves. This was our last racking since our trees are officially barren.

I had planned on adding to this post, but since it has already been a week I will start another post. Boy, does time fly!

Merry Christmas #2

We had a great Christmas this year. We weren't sure what to expect, but as always the Lord provided us with good company and fun times. We went over to a friend's house for dinner on Christmas Eve. Axel was a champ. He wasn't able to sleep during his nap because he was so excited that Santa was coming. He spent almost the entire hour and fifteen minutes he was lying in bed singing at the top of his lungs, "Santa is coming to town!". It probably didn't help that we had him open a gift on Christmas Eve morning. We were hoping the classic Christmas movies would entertain him while we were at dinner. The only problem was that we couldn't say no to Axel watching one movie in the morning. He watched "Santa is coming to town", if you couldn't guess by his singing and chanting at nap time. He absolutely loved to learn about good old Kris Kringle and how he started delivering toys to children.

We attempted to go to church as a family, but Axel's lack of sleep resulted in a total melt down about half way through the service. The place was way too packed to deal with a screaming child so we decided to leave. We stopped by the house to pick up the pack n play as well as Axel's pillow and blanket thinking he might want to crash early at our friend's house. We were pleasantly surprised by Axel's angelic behavior that lasted until 10:30pm! We told ourselves that we would leave as soon as he started to melt down, but it never came. It was such a blessing to be able to share a nice meal and time with friends without having to worry about Axel.

Axel did struggle to get to sleep, but I do believe he was in dream land just about 11pm. He woke just after 7am, which was a bit early for him considering he went to bed so late. Here is Axel on Christmas morning. It took him a few minutes to become his happy self. He was excited to see Mark, his elf, on the Christmas tree, and the plate of cookies for Santa empty. He knew that Santa had come and that Mark would be going back to the North pole until next year.

Axel was a great little helper as he climbed under the Christmas tree to reach the presents that were deep underneath.

Axel opened Santa's gifts first. He loved the train tracks that Santa sent him so much that we had to bargain with him to continue to open his other gifts.

We did give him amble time between gifts, but we realized the little guy really only needs a couple of presents. The difficult thing about that is he is loved so much by all of his family that EVERYONE sends him gifts. Hopefully our house will not be overtaken by toys. I already stored a few toys in the attic to make more room :)

To back track. On the Thursday before Christmas Axel was able to have another play date with our neighbor Rishaan. They just happen to both wear Mickey Mouse t-shirts that day. They are the cutest kids ever. One game they played for almost an hour was the sleeping game. They would run into Rishaan's room, lie in his bed, pull the covers up and giggle. They would then run out of the bedroom into the living room and repeat x 100 times. Hema was able to grab a picture of them as we opened the door quickly and caught them lying still giggling. I will have to post that once she forwards it to me. I only managed to get one photo on my phone. It is not very good, but you can see the Mickey Mouse shirts and how much taller Rishaan is than Axel.

On Christmas Eve morning, Axel and I raked the front yard and played in the leaves. Axel loves leaves.

He played in the leaves over the weekend when daddy and him raked as well. He actually told me that we needed to rake because there was too many leaves in the front yard. Here are a couple of pictures and yes, he likes to go into the yard waste bin. What can I say, boys will be boys!

Axel continues to amaze us and we feel so blessed to have such a wonderful child. He seems to be growing as he feels heavier and he looks taller compared to the dining room table. He loves to sing at the top of his lungs, no matter where we are. I really need to get a video of him singing, but he tends to claim up when he knows I am recording him. He loves to help and do what mommy and daddy are doing. He rather help do chores than play on his own. He is becoming more and more articulate and smarter by the minute. He loves to extend his bedtime and naptime in whatever way he can. He loves to fix things and take care of others if they are injured. For example, today he got a bandaid for me when I scraped my knuckle on the corner of a cabinet. He put it on me and said, "are you all better mommy?" I will leave you with a picture of Axel "fixing" his bike.

Merry Christmas #1

We had a small Christmas celebration on Saturday. I made chicken enchiladas and Spanish rice from scratch. It was not to bad for my first attempt. Everyone was really nice and pretended like they liked it :)

Desert was a bigger hit with the chocolate vegan cake (for baby Jesus), the persimmon cookies and the "to die for" pumpkin ice cream.

After everyone de-stressed from their travels and after eating dinner we got right into present opening. Axel was such a big helper. He carried all of his presents and then handed out everyone else's presents. Here he is carrying his super big present from Auntie and Uncle. This was his first present of the day. It was a giant cardboard space ship that is designed to be colored or painted.

Axel really wanted to put it together right away, but we were able to convince him to keep opening the other presents. Here he is with present number two. See how big and strong he is?

Guess what this heavy big present from Grandma and Grandpa is....yep, a big motorized truck! Here is Grandpa teaching Axel how use it. He did quite good considering it says for ages 6+ on the box.

Because of the present opening Axel missed his nap. He started getting a little cranky around 3pm. He decided he wanted to take a "nap" in his new space rocket. Here he is during his 60 second nap, smiles and all.

We had so much fun visiting with Great Grandma, Grandma Susan, Grandpa Brian, Auntie and Uncle Ryan. We were said to see them go, but were so grateful for the time we had to spend with them.

On a side note, Grandma Carol sent Axel a new hat and Louis a new sweater. We all absolutely love them both. She did such a good job knitting them. Here is Louis in his new sweater. I think it is the cutest sweater ever! I would wear it if it was big enough :)

And here is Axel in his super cute new hat.

I totally want it. Can you tell? I think it fits me perfect! Axel was kind enough to let me wear it for the picture, but since then he lets me know that it is his. He wears it all of the time, in and out of the house!

Sorry for the delay in posting this....the days seem to be running all together. Check back soon for pictures of this coming weekend and until then.....
Merry Christmas! May we all enjoy this special time of year as we celebrate the birth of our wonderful and mighty Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ!
God Bless you all!!!!!!

Santa and Lights

Axel and I have had a fun filled couple of days, despite Axel waking with a cold and small fever on Thursday morning. Most of the day was mellow with Axel resting at home, but his fever and cold couldn't stop him from going on a "chu chu train" to see the Christmas lights at Vascona Park.

I got Axel all bundled up as if he was going skiing. He was so overheated by the time that we were back in the car he immediately started stripping. The successful thing was that he didn't mention being cold once, which allowed me to feel good about taking my sick child out in the 40 degree weather to see Christmas lights.

After riding on the train around the park they offered a free carousel ride. This was the first time that Axel actually make it without crying or getting off before it started. This was also the first time that I took him to a place that allowed the parents to ride with their children. He had so much fun he kept telling me he wanted to ride a camel again in the future. The funny thing was this carousel is composed of only horses.

The following day while we waited for Santa Claus to park his sleigh and rein deers on the roof of Westgate shopping center Axel rode on Clifford for the first time. It is really fun for me to see how much more brave he is becoming and that he is starting to enjoy rides like this. I can remember how much I enjoyed them growing up so I hope he continues as well.

Santa arrived walking slowly with his cane. Axel quickly became his shy self. We were the first people of the day. Santa spoke with a soft gentle voice as he asked Axel what type of train tracks he wanted. Santa said he would be sure to tell his elfs to get started on making them and kindly gave Axel a candy cane. Axel then did a great job of consuming his first candy cane ever, with little instruction from me. I told him these candies are easy to choke on and that he needs to lick or bite through the hard candy. He then took it gave it one lick and bit right into it saying, "mommy I won't choke on it." he is just like his daddy in the sense that he can chew hard candy like that.

We have dinner plans with our neighbors again so Axel gets to play with his new friend Rishaan. Tomorrow we have another little party to go to so the crazy holiday fun continues. It is hard to believe Christmas is almost here. Next week we are having our Christmas gathering with Auntie Shannon and Grandma Susan and Grandpa Brian so for Axel gift opening starts next week!

Check back soon for more fun filled moments of little Axel!

Funny Axel

Axel has become quite the funny little man. I have mentioned his humor before, but it continues to grow and blossom. A few examples of what he has done this past week for laughs are as follows.

1.



Need I say more?

2. Putting a huge container on his head at a birthday party today and trying to walk around with it balancing on his head. I was unable to take a picture because I was worried that this container full of interlocking toys was going to fall on another child.

Yes....Axel really thinks he is funny. He is constantly saying. "That is funny mommy," "Axel is funny".

The funny thing about it is I laugh the most when he is not trying to be funny because his expressions and responses are extremely hilarious.

He will whisper in my ear "mommy is it morning time?" Or say, "Daddy you are squishing me, I am trying to sleep right here!" or, "mommy, do you want to go memorize the Grinch songs with me". They may not seem funny to you, but the big words, thought out phrases and facial expressions he has are what really get me.

We had our new neighbors over for dinner and Rishaan and Axel had their first play date. Axel and Rishaan were great friends by the end of the night, although they struggled initially. Axel wasn't very good at sharing. Luckily, Rishaan is super laid back and kept going to other toys. Axel had a blast playing "horsey" on Muhesh's(Rishaan's father) lap. His laugh is extremely infectious. It is almost impossible not to laugh along with him.

I tried to capture this on video, but the video doesn't do Axel's laugh justice so I will have to work on this for a future post.

Axel and daddy did yard work this morning in the freezing cold. Temperatures got down to the high 30's. Axel was so cold that for the first time in his life he said that he was cold and that he had to go inside to get warm. This is a huge break through since I don't think Axel has every admitted to being cold. He has taken many a cold bath and prefers to wash his hands in ice cold water rather than warm or hot water.

He was so cold that even an hour later he wanted to be wrapped in his blanket in the house and in the car on our way to Mason's birthday party.


Axel had fun playing with Mason's toys as well as the balloons. I wish I would have taken more pictures but just like usual now I don't seem to have my phone or camera next to me when Axel is doing something especially cute. Typically by the time I get the camera set up that moment is over.


Last night we purchased the elf on the shelf for Axel. He named his elf Mark. If you are to visit between now and Christmas be sure to ask about Mark. Mark goes to the north pole each night to tell Santa how Axel behaved each day and to relay to Santa Axel's Christmas list. Each night when Mark returns from the North Pole, Axel has to find where he is in the house because he always changes locations. I hope it is a fun tradition that Axel will like over the years.

Well time to start playing since Axel is up from his nap!