Happy 80th Birthday GG

Before we jump to my Grandma's 80th Birthday and Party I will update you on our very fun and action packed Memorial Day weekend. The weekend started off by purchasing Axel a big boy, twin mattress. He was so excited to pick out his sheets at Target on Thursday. I let him pick out the color. It took over 10 minutes for him to decide. He finally decided on red. He also wanted pink and yellow, but I think he realized that his bed was red and he wanted to match it.

Once we had the sheets washed and the bed converted Axel was even more excited that he was finally a bigger boy, ready for a big boy mattress. He also figured out his little polka dotted blanket that he has been sleeping with for the past two years or more is just too small. He decided the Winnie the Pooh Blanket was okay for the first night, but he realized the big red blanket that I tried to convince him to get wasn't such a bad idea after all. So his bed currently has twin red sheets and a nice flannel red blanket on top.

All memorial day weekend Keith and I finished putting up the sheet rock, spackeled and taped the garage. We put in some long hours in order to finish Sunday night. I was really proud of Keith pushing through. It is not necessarily a trait of his to be type A like myself and stay up all night to get something done just for the sake of getting it done. We worked until 10:30pm Sunday night when we had the intention of stopping at 6pm for dinner. I actually cooked dinner and bathed Axel while Keith worked and then Keith came in and ate and put Axel to bed while I worked. When I was done at 10:00pm he went back out to find any areas I missed while I showered. It was great team work! Next phase is priming and painting. Our goal is to be done by the end of the month. It will take one weekend to prime and the following weekend we will paint. It is funny how long projects take when there is fun to be had, especially now that summer is here.

Speaking of fun, Memorial day started with Max's birthday party. We all had a blast. Axel and Max play extremely well together, despite being 10 months apart. I believe Max put his arm around Axel half a dozen time over the 3 hours that we were there. Of course, it was impossible to catch it on film. I had a hard enough time getting photos that were not blurry, let alone a cute moment.

Axel loves birthday cake. He announced to everyone at the party that he likes the frosting the best. :)

Axel has matured so much in the past few months. He is great at sharing and not being upset when others open gifts. He loves to help out and enjoys seeing others have fun.

This Thursday was my Grandma Millie's 80th birthday. She really wanted all of the Goldstein's/family to get together for her birthday. This is the first birthday party that we have every had for her that I can remember. We were all looking forward to making it a special day for her. Grandma Susan did all of the hard work. She prepared all of the food and bought the group gift of a new 1100 watt microwave. She also brought gifts for Axel. Here she is reading one of them :)

Because we hardly ever get together I wanted to include a picture of everyone that was there so that my Grandma could access them (minus two of Grandma's friends, because I didn't get a picture of them). Auntie and Uncle Ryan.

Aunt Cindy and Kaylee (Carrie's daughter) and Axel's "favorite cousin"

My cousin Carrie who we haven't seen in sometime. It was great seeing her and catching up.

Uncle David

My cousin James, his wife Denise and their little girl, Vanessa who is almost 7 months.

Grandpa Brian, tucked behind Axel eating GG's yummy birthday cake (brought by Aunt Cindy).

And the birthday girl herself!

Unfortunately, My Aunt Susan was unable to attend because she is still very ill and in the hospital. We were glad that she was doing well enough for Uncle David and James to attend though. We had such a great time and although it was a long day of driving it was well worth it.

Fun, Busy Times

Time continues to fly by in the Szolusha household. Our days and weekends are action packed. It seems like Axel's social calendar is becoming just as busy as ours. Before I get ahead of myself I will start off from where we left off. Axel and Keith surprised me with a wonderful Mother's day. It started off with the most gourmet breakfast burritos that Keith has ever made. Then they picked me a beautiful bouquet of flowers from our yard while I got to go for a ride. For dinner they took me out to eat at the Wine Cellar in Los Gatos. Axel scarfed his spaghetti, while Keith enjoyed duck and I enjoyed a very delicious seafood dish. We were a bit early for our reservations so we burned some time across the street at the Gap. Axel was absolutely fascinated with the manikins.

You can tell we don't get out much. I can see how it was foreign for him to see fake, non-moving "people".

He was even more amazed by the kid manikins.

We managed to grab a couple of photos on our way out after dinner.

Daddy and Axel being silly.

Axel has had a couple of play dates with Rishaan, but he has been hanging out with Max more because Rishaan has been out of town and busy with family gatherings. Max and Axel have been getting along great. We have been having lunch picnics in the park across the street from our house on Thursdays.

We also ventured out to Salinas to watch Monster Jam. Max and his father, along with the three of us, carpooled together. It was a complete blast. Axel and Max LOVED it.

Keith and Axel officially decided it was going to be an annual father/son date from here on out. We had perfect seats. We were nice and high up on the bleachers so it wasn't too loud and we lucked out with shade that 70% of the audience didn't have :)

We are finally replacing the carpet in our front room. We are sticking with the lowest profile carpet which is a loop carpet to prevent any allergy issues with both Keith and Axel. Keith and I are excited that he was able to handle the current carpet without any allergy problems. We thought for sure that we would have to replace it with hardwood floors like the rest of the house. However, because of the success the past two years, we will get to continue to enjoy the carpet room. Axel loves playing in there. It has become more of a play room than a living room, which we are completely okay with. We are actually glad that we use all of the rooms in our house. At any rate, both Axel and Louis had fun picking out the carpet.

Louis liked the bigger loop carpet because it was softer, but that was really not an option.

This morning Axel and I met Mason and his mom at the Palo Alto Junior Museum and Zoo. They had an absolute blast. The inside of the place, or the museum, was like a small version of the big Discovery Museum in San Jose. The science displays were all interactive and kept the children quite occupied.

The inside also had a fun tunnel and climbing rope the kids could play in and on. Axel and Mason of course, loved the bug tunnel.

The outside consisted of a small zoo. After two hours of fun the two of them enjoyed a picnic and then we headed home for nap time.

We will be attending Max's birthday party Monday morning/afternoon and then we have a neighborhood BBQ in the park that evening. Keith is going to enjoy some fun racing tomorrow and Monday. We also think we may get out to some of the sales to buy Axel a twin mattress, and possibly a new refrigerator, grill and microwave. We will see what deals we can find :) Thanks for reading. We hope you all enjoy the long weekend. We also would love prayers for my Aunt Susan. Please pray for a full recovery as she is very ill. Thanks!

Deer Hollow Farm and Bike to (not) Work Day

With the nice weather time seems to be ticking a little faster around here. Since our last post we have gone to a couple of bike races to watch daddy race. At our first bike race of the year, here is Axel lounging on my lap eating a cookie with his favorite new shirt that Grandma Susan found. It is really cool. It changes color in the sun and then goes back to black and white in the shade or indoors. It was really hot in Livermore so we laid low while we watched daddy race.

We also watched daddy race this past weekend at our local Los Gatos race, Cat's Hill. Unfortunately, I did not get any photos of the day. Keith wasn't feeling great anyways because of his allergies. After his race we went to a nice BBQ at our friend Kerry's house. Axel had a great time playing with new friends he met and Keith and I enjoyed good food, conversation and company. The day before Cat's Hill Criterium, last Friday, Axel and I went to Deer Hollow Farm with one of his daycare buddies, Mason. The farm is an old little farm in Rancho San Antonia Park. I had no idea it was there. It was a mile walk on the trails to get there from the parking lot. It was a little long for Axel as Mason was trying to walk with his mother and I and Axel was getting a nice free ride. Axel really wanted to turn around because it was taking us "so long" to get there, but luckily his tempermant changed when we finally arrived.

Apparently it was birthing season. We were able to see 7 new baby goats that were 1-2 months old and 5 lambs that were also just around a month old. Axel was even able to pet one of the mommy goats and was very excited to see how the mommy and daddy interacted with the babies.

We saw a 90 year old tractor that was from 1920. It was one of the high lights for me.

Axel and Mason's favorite aspect of the day, was not any of the animals that they saw, but the "really big, cool tree trunk that was cut in half." Here is Axel enjoying himself inside the tree trunk.

Axel actually did a run/walk the mile hike bike to the car. I was really proud of him for being such a big boy and walking on his own. He often likes to be carried or pushed, so doing a mile continuous was a big deal.

Yesterday, Thursday, was Bike to Work day in the South Bay. Different companies put up booths that are called energizer stations and give out free food and gadgets. Our group of friends along with hundreds, if not thousands of other cyclist, tried to gather as much free things as possible on their way to work. Here is Keith, myself, Axel and Denny at the Kaiser station. We had to get a picture there since I work there.

Axel and I headed home after going to 4 stations while Keith and Denny met up with a few others and stopped by several more. The coolest item was free anti-virus software, but the most unique and original was a portable potty called Brief Relief that instantly gels your urine and is safe to dispose of in the garbage. We are all still laughing about it today. Axel and I stopped by a new park on the way home. He had fun swinging Mr. Piggy and Mr. Bear in the kiddy swings.

Axel has been a little defiant lately so this week was all about making sure he knows exactly what his boundaries are. He spent a lot of time in his room thinking about his mouth and his actions. Luckily, with a little bit of tough love Axel is now eating by himself, going to the bathroom by himself and remembering to say please and thank you, rather than crying and yelling. Keith and I were thinking back and it is hard to figure out how situations manifest and grow, but Axel got to the point where he wouldn't eat unless he was on my lap and I was feeding him. He would also not go to the bathroom without someone going with him, when he goes alone at daycare. We are really proud that we nipped it in the butt and he is back on track. Having a sweet, boy who cooperates is much nicer. Now, if I can just get him to stop calling everything poopy butt life would be even better :) On a more positive note, Axel still loves trains. Here is our latest creation of his tracks. I kind of get proud when we think of some new inventive way to put his tracks together. I don't think Axel really cares, but Keith and I always complement each other's designs. Besides, Grandpa Bruce designed one of the coolest tracks and I couldn't let him out do my creativity :)

Last I leave you with another funny Axel moment. Here we are headed out for a walk. You will notice Axel only has one lens in his glasses. He didn't care. He wore them the entire walk without a complaint.

We hope everyone enjoys the beautiful weekend and wish all Moms out there a special Mother's Day!

Auntie's Wedding and Grandma/pa's visit

We have had a fun and wonderful three weeks since the last post. My wonderful sister married her soul mate, my parents stayed with us and visited for over a week and I chopped a foot off of my hair! Axel absolutely loved having Grandma Sonia and Grandpa Bruce staying with us. He put them to work right away. They read lots of books, Grandma Sonia told the best stores about little Olie (?) and the three of them played until Axel's heart was content.

I believe Axel's favorite game during their stay was making sand castles and playing prince and princess with all of the little toys Grandma and Grandpa bought for Axel.

Axel was very charming at both my sister's rehearsal and her wedding.

Keith and I were extremely proud of Axel at Shannon's wedding. He took his job as ring bearer very seriously and he did a fabulous job. His smile ran from ear to ear and he walked nicely hand in hand with Lance, Ryan's nephew and the other ring bearer. Axel was a champ all weekend long despite his lack of sleep. He tore it up on the dance floor at the end of the evening. How wonderful it was being the parent of a happy, overtired 3 year old, rather than a cranky, crying 3 year old.

On Thursday, I went to a Salon for the first time in probably 3 years to get my hair cut. I was growing my hair for Shannon's wedding and couldn't wait to donate it. It was at the stage where it was more in the way than pretty. I was able to donate almost 12 inches of hair to Locks of Love. I have to send it in with Keith's hair that we cut off a couple of months ago.

On Friday we took Axel to Happy Hollow. We were able to see a few animals in the zoo part of the park. Our favorite were the stripped tailed Lemurs. They were very entertaining with their balancing act.

Axel had fun playing in the play structure. He pretended he was a doggy. These days he is either "Miss Cindy", the librarian who does story time, or a doggy.

Axel also had fun feeding the animals and looking at the big boy roller coaster. He acted like he wanted to go on. I brought him all he way up the ramp to the back of the line before he decided he really didn't want to go on it. Good thing, because he wasn't quite tall enough to go on it, even with assistance. He also did the same thing he always does on the rides. He starts off quite happy and then ended up crying, saying he wants to get off the ride the entire time the ride is moving.

Good thing is he still loves animals. He enjoyed feeding the goats as usual.

We were also able to catch our first puppet show. He appeared to love it and was completely engrossed in the show the entire time. We really enjoyed our visit with Grandma and Grandpa and were really sad they had to go. They safely flew home on Saturday and we can't wait until they can come back again.