More New Tricks

Having 5 days off of work in a row has allowed Axel to improve his sleep from good to great. Axel has only been getting up once a night the past 5 days and his naps have been totaling 2+ hours. It is great to see him thriving. As the books say, with sleep comes new tricks!!!

So I started Axel on egg yolk after our last posting. I read in the "Super baby book" that it is a great finger food. I didn't intentionally plan on allowing Axel to start trying finger food because he hadn't really shown me the "pincher grasp," but after realizing how dry egg yolk is I let Axel have a field day getting messy and trying to feed himself. It was one of the first times that I had to completely change the outfit Axel was wearing. Lets just say the dogs had a great time eating everything that hit the floor and I am not necessarily looking forward to the transition of Axel "feeding" himself and the mess that goes along with it :).

I introduced the sippy cup over a month ago. Axel really hasn't shown improvement with consuming liquids through it, but the past week he has become more and more interested in drinking water from a cup. I think half of the interest is actually water and the other half is him wanting to bite or suck on the cup. Axel has appeared to have outgrown his baby toys. He has officially entered the phase where everything that everyone else has is what he wants. I will give Axel a toy to play with and 9 out of 10 times he fusses until I give him something plastic from the kitchen. It doesn't matter if it is a plastic Tupperware lid or spoon, it is new, fun and chewable.

Today, I gave Axel the same spoon in the picture below while I swept the floor and he jumped up and down waiting for me to give him the broom to bite on. Of course, I told him it wasn't a toy and that he was going to have to be happy playing with the spoon because I wasn't about to let him chew on the end of the broom. This was all cute and dandy until Axel started crying for the doggy toys. I don't let Axel chew on the rawhide or doggy foot, but I am super tempted to let him so that I can get a picture of it :) Now I have been disciplined to not let him chew on the doggy toys, but I never said I wouldn't let him chew on the dogs themselves. Besides, Touis loves it!!!
Keith and I absolutely love Axel to pieces. He is so much fun to be around and he constantly makes us laugh and smile. We hope you enjoy the pictures and videos as much as we do. Have a great week!

Growing Boy!

Axel is 7.5 months old and amazing Keith and I every day with how much older he is looking. He is trying to communicate verbally and with gestures more and more. He grunts when he is hungry, when he wants to be picked up and when he wants a change of scenery. Grunting is a big step up from crying. Grunting equals mommy laughing :)

This week I was blessed? with another day off of work. When I went to drop of Axel on Tuesday the daycare informed me that they were going to be closed the following day for Veterans day. I was completely surprised because I thought I had closely looked over the Holidays that I needed off of work. Well, a few phone calls and all of my patients were rescheduled, happy or not. I did discover the daycare's handbook of listed Holidays did not include Veterans day so I am anxious to see what they say when I drop Axel off on Monday. I wrote them a nice email yesterday asking for an explanation or an updated Holiday list, but no news yet.

Keith informed me that he needed to take the camera to work sometime this week so I made sure to take as many pictures as possible yesterday, hence why Axel has the same outfit in all of the pictures :)

Well, Keith decided to take the camera to work today. Would you believe that is was today that Axel decides to pull himself up to standing? Here is how it happened. I was in the kitchen cooking and Axel was on his play mate right outside of the kitchen with his feet on the dog gate. After 5 minutes of kicking the doggy gate and grunting I came over and sat next to Axel in the middle of the dog gate. Axel grabbed my hands and I pulled him up to standing. He then grabbed the bars and proceeded to sit down and stand up on his own. I of course was there for spotting because I don't trust that he won't fall and hit his head. He thought it was the coolest thing ever.

Axel and I went to the doctor today to get a couple of shots. He weighed in at 16 lbs 7 oz and is now up to the 11th percentile!! He is 26 1/4 inches tall which is the 18th percentile! Keith and I thought he jumped to the 50th percentile because he looks so much junkier and feels so much heavier. He is also a complete pig and eats 3meals of almost 4 TB of food AND anywhere from 33-40 oz of milk!!!! We are soooo PROUD that Axel is taking after mommy and daddy with the big appetite. We hope it continues.

Axel loved the pears and asparagus and tomorrow I think I am going to start him on egg yolk. Funny thing with egg yolk is that they recommend 1 every 1-2 days and if Axel needs to have it 4 days in a row to rule out an allergy, is it okay for him to have 4 egg yolks or should I give him half an egg yolk for 4 consecutive days? oooh, decisions, decisions!!!! Alrighty, I am getting tired so I will cut this short. Here are a couple of pictures of Axel looking cute while working on his crawling/scooting skills. I wish I could say that Axel loves reading books like he used to when he was younger. Currently he is more interested in eating them. I have included a short video of what Axel thinks a book is used for. I have also included a short video of Axel jumping in his exersaucer. Everyone always asks me if we bought a "jumper" for Axel. Lets just say Axel doesn't need one......

Hi All! What a wonderful weekend for the Szolusha's.

Friday morning Axel and I had fun visiting with my friend Julia and her 6 week old daughter, Sadie. Here they are holding hands:)

We went for a nice stroll downtown and I enjoyed a decaf latte at Peet's Coffee.

Gramma Susan arrived save and sound Friday afternoon, after dealing with a dead car battery all morning. We were glad that she was able to still come up after getting a nerve racking call Thursday night about the dead car :). Axel and Gramma had a blast playing together while Keith and I were able to enjoy a beautiful ride along the coast.


Auntie Shannon and Ryan came over for dinner. I was able to bribe Auntie to give me a haircut for a bottle of wine:) Keith was nervous that she would cut it too short, but he was happy with the end result. No one could believe my hair grew 4 inches in 4months, having had a similar haircut just before the 4th of July.


Axel continues to look more and more like a little boy and less and less like a baby.

He is starting to show more signs of crawling. I hope to capture him rocking back on all fours this week. It is the cutest thing to see him do this while squealing in delight at his new trick.
Here Axel is going for Louis and Touis foot. We are asking Grandpa Brian for a squeaky foot for Axel for Christmas:)


Axel is also becoming more aware of his surroundings and showing an increased attention span. Here he is mimicking me typing and loving all of the colors on the computer screen.


Have a great week!

flats, flats and more flats

This past week has been an interesting one for Keith and myself. It started off with my ride last Saturday. Approximately 2-3 miles from home I hit a very slick corner and before I knew it I was sliding along the road looking up instead of down. This sign was put up AFTER several people crashed/slid out on this corner, including myself. My helmet worked wonders and nicely broke in two locations saving me from any type of head injury. My hip was the only real thing to suffer. A trip to the ER cleared my right pelvis and hip of a fracture. I was glad to know that the pain was only soft tissue. I somehow managed to get Axel to daycare and myself into work on Monday. A cane and crutch saved my day and allowed me to hobble from the waiting room to my treatment room for each patient. Kind of interesting providing "physical therapy" for others injured :)

Our bad luck continued as I received a phone call from Keith at around 6pm Monday night. My first instinct was to ask if he was okay. The only reason why he would be calling me a few minutes from the time he should be home was to tell me he wasn't going to be home. Yep, my instincts were right. Keith luckily was "only" getting a ticket for walking his bike across railroad tracks when the lever arm was coming down. Apparently, the county is beefing up security around railroad tracks because of the 4 recent suicides committed by high schoolers. Keith was "unfortunately", riding with extremely bright night lights he designed at work, which made it too hard for him to go unnoticed.

Tuesday morning as I was still hobbling on a borrowed cane from work, Keith went to put Axel in the car for me. When he opened the door to the garage he noticed that I had a rear passenger side flat tire on my car.

No way, I thought. How could this be possible? Well, to make a long story short, we now have road side assistance for MY car under our insurance, a pump in my trunk to act like a lever arm to unscrew overly tight lug nuts, and a nicely patched tire for only $26. I did make it to work to see 7 of my 12 patients and Keith made it to work just in time to make his 2 meetings for the day.

Enough about mommy and daddy chaos. Axel, on the other hand has been doing wonderfully. He is starting to show signs of crawling. He is scooting quite well, but still gets frustrated when he doesn't go anywhere. Because of all of Axel's increased strength over the past month Keith and I thought it would be a good time to try to ween Axel from his medication. I am excited to say that Axel has been off of the Zantac for 5 days and he is still eating extremely well. He still has some very delayed spit up, but he no longer arches his back or has any screaming fits at night (knock on wood). Hopefully, he will continue to do well and the medication will be something of the distant past.

Axel has also been adding new foods to his palate. He now eats green beans, pears and white potatoes, in addition to the sweet potatoes, carrots, avocado, butternut squash, and bananas. Next on the list is asparagus. After the asparagus I will have time to introduce more fruits, now that he is 7 months old. I do have to admit that preparing starches and veggies is much easier than fruit, because fruit doesn't freeze as well. I now take back what I have said a half dozen times over the past 6 weeks.....I DO understand why people buy jarred baby food. I almost want to cheat and go by pears, peaches, etc from whole foods, but I promised myself I wouldn't......so please wish me luck!!!

Axel is eating 2-3 meals a day and consuming about 3-4 cubes (ice cube tray) per day. I believe 1 cube is considered 2 TBS of food. He really does seem to like food and loves watching mommy and daddy eat. Speaking of food, I have to mention Keith bought a blumpkin (a blue pumpkin). it was recommended for us to try it with our pumpkin bread and pie recipes. Well, Keith so graciously made some blumpkin bread last night only to discover that both of our stomachs can't handle the taste.
The initial taste is the taste of the yummy spices that our pumpkin bread is known for, but by the time we swallowed our first few bites we both thought the bread was going to come back up. Yep, we can't believe it either. Keith and I LOVE anything pumpkin, but have now finally found something we DON'T like. We threw out the entire blumpkin bread and cooked blumpkin left over for the pie we were going to make. It is on our agenda to make something with yummy sugar pie pumpkin as soon as possible to rid our minds of the awful taste. I keep thinking this might be a blessing for me to help me get over my over indulgence of sweets. Most of me is hoping that I won't be tainted and that I will still love the pumpkin pie and bread once I taste it again :)

Next week Axel goes in for his second shot of polio and hep B (I just started these at his 6 month wellness check). I hope to get a chance to weigh him and check his length, as well. Axel's daycare thinks he is a big boy. I can't wait to see if he has gone up drastically in the percentile for weight because he is definitely a solid baby. When I watch Axel play I think of him as one big muscle because he is constantly moving his entire body. Here is one example of Axel having a blast with his rattle.


We are thinking that Axel is just about to outgrow his car seat. His feet look like they are going to start to hang over and his shoulders look like they fall a little higher than the harness, which is definitely a safety hazard. I think we will change to his big boy car seat in a week regardless of what his measurements are next Friday.

Axel continues to do well at night sleeping about 12 hours waking 2 times a night on most nights, with 1-2 nights a week waking only once. His naps are pretty regular at home. He typically takes two long naps (1.25-1.75 hours) for me, but occasionally will take 3, 45 minute naps. At daycare Axel is taking 2, 45min-1 hour naps, which is wonderful progress.

Keith wanted me to mention his solution to a puzzle he solved was published in the MIT magazine. He was so psyched that he has solved two more since. I will make sure to post the link or a picture next time. Right now Axel and I are waiting for Grandma Susan to arrive. We are all excited to visit. It has been quite some time since we have spent time together. Auntie Shannon and Ryan are coming over for dinner. I will try to post again on Sunday so check back soon!!!

Axel turns 7 months on Halloween!

One year ago yesterday Keith and I went to Kaiser for our big ultrasound to discover that we were having a boy. Now one year later, our little baby is becoming a unique person with quit the personality! It seems each morning when I greet Axel he is a bit heavier and taller. It also appears that his hair is growing in at a much faster rate. I find it quite amazing to see how much he changes on a daily and weekly basis.

Axel was a duck for Halloween.

The Anderson's were gracious enough to pass it on to Axel. Axel seemed extra talkative last night while in his costume. It was as if he knew what was going on and was playing up the hype as well as he could.

Keith took him "trick or treating" on our street in order to say hello to our friendly neighbors. Although no candy was exchanged, pumpkin pie recipes were.

Speaking of pumpkin pie, Grandma and Grandpa Burgess were able to try some of Keith's delicious pumpkin pie last night. I believe it was a hit. Most people who try Keith's pumpkin pie love it, even if they are not pumpkin lovers like ourselves. They also stayed to watch transformers II before heading back to their hotel for the last night. They left early for central California where they will be staying for the next few days for more golf and time with Grandpa's sisters.

Grandma and Grandpa were also able to feed Axel a couple of times over their stay. Here they are displaying excellent team work as Axel is enjoying his lunch yesterday!



Well, I will cut this short again. Too many other things to do right now. We hope you all have a great week!

Trips and visitors

Well, last weekend has come and gone with this weekend already upon us. My Grandpa's 75th birthday party was a hit. You can see how young and "hip" he looks in the picture below. I feel so lucky to have such a young family. There are 8 great grandchildren, with the oldest now in the second grade. It seems amazing to think that my grandparents have the potential of living long enough to see great, great grandchildren!!

Axel was fascinated by the many balloons that decorated the table. Of course, when Keith went to take a picture of Axel looking up at the balloons he turned away and looked down. My sister and I still had fun being silly.

Keith and I always take advantage of a family photo opportunity. Here is yet another..

Here is my cousin Kristi with her husband Kris. Their daughter, Sophie, who is 5 months old, is the closest in age to Axel.

Axel enjoyed meeting Sophie. As usual he was quick to put the moves on.....Luckily, Sophie didn't mind :)

Axel was also able to see Grandma and Grandpa Burgess for the second time at the party. He had a great time playing with them. Unfortunately, I don't have any photos to show for it. However, they drove down Monday night and have been visiting us this week. Here is a cute photo of the trio.

I discovered that Axel not only likes mommy's watch, but also loves Grandpa's watch.

I leave you with Axel having a great time playing on daddy's shoulders.


Sorry for the short post. Axel turns 7 months tomorrow, on Halloween. Hopefully, I will be able to write a post on Halloween and the little guy turning 7 months over the next couple of days.
Happy Trick or Treating!!!!

New Tricks

This week has flown by. It seems the weeks are starting to move faster and faster now that Axel and I are in a good routine with work and daycare. Hopefully, time will slow down. Keith and I are trying hard to cherish every moment, but it is hard when the moments flash before our eyes.
Axel came down with another cold this week. So much for being healthy this month. This was his second cold in October! I was a bit frustrated when I went to pick him up on Monday because he was in the house instead of outside with the other kids. I came to find out he was hanging out with the sick 1 year old. How did he get so lucky to hang out with the sick kid? Oh, because he happens to be the "other baby" and babies hang out with babies I guess!

On a more positive note the colds don't seem to be as disruptive to his sleep or schedule. He has been getting up twice a night rather than once a night, but Keith and I didn't expect the 8 hours of straight sleep to be the norm, just yet. Axel's naps are also becoming more regular again and longer. He has been able to sleep for a total of 1.5-2 hours at day care which is a huge improvement. At home Axel is sleeping 2-3 hours of total nap time. Yesterday was a stealer day with Axel taking an hour and forty minute nap in the morning, a 40 min nap in the Burley and another 45 min nap in the afternoon. Letting Axel fuss and cry a bit in the crib at the same times every day has really helped. Daycare was a bit opposed to this at first, but I think they are much happier with him sleeping more.

When I went to pick up Axel on Tuesday from daycare I was informed that Axel sat for 15 minutes straight in the morning playing. It was hard for me to believe that he went from a minute or two to 15 minutes, but I soon discovered yesterday that it wasn't a fluke. He is able to really sit now. The only bad thing is he will reach outside his limit and tumble over sideways. This is okay if he is in the pack n play, but not okay on a blanket on our hardwood floors. This morning he turned over too quickly for me to spot his head and boom went his head on the ground. He fake cried a little bit more out of being scared than in pain. This is the first time in years that I wish I had carpet. I think I mentioned last time that Axel no longer needs the Pacifier to put himself to sleep. At night he will shove his "lovey" in his mouth and when I am holding him before bed he sucks on his fingers. During the day you can often find him with his finger in his mouth. Here is a picture I took a couple of days ago.....like father, like son. Axel loves discovering how things work and can entertain himself for quite sometime if left alone on the floor. Below is a picture of Axel next to the kitchen cabinets. He will reach for the handles or the hinge of the door. This is often where Axel hangs out while I am cooking dinner. Yesterday, Axel rolled himself over to the swing and had fun pushing it while I prepared his dinner. Axel is becoming stronger and stronger as well as more aware of his surrounding. Earlier this morning I caught him reaching for his toy that has been hanging in his pack n play for weeks. Today was the first time he was actually able to reach it! Here is a video clip.

Time to get going. Check back soon. We hope to take lots of good pictures this weekend at Grandpa's 75th birthday party. Have a great weekend!