Sorry about the delay in posts. Axel and I had a terrible stomach virus with lots of vomiting (and diarrhea for him). I am pretty sure he is nearly 100% recovered. I am almost there, but am still extremely tired and still having trouble consuming food. Besides being sick Axel has become a little more picky and fussy at times. When I am not around he appears to be much better behaved. With me he is crying and whining for me to pick him up, hold him or do something. With that said, he hasn't been much of a walker since he came down with the stomach bug. He was doing great with the short independent walking of up to 30 seconds, but not in the past week. 
His sleeping seems to be changing quite quickly. He is taking longer naps. Anywhere from 1 hour to 2.5 hours. Some days he takes two naps, while other days just one long nap. He seems to only want to sleep 10-11 hours at night, rather than the 12-14 hours that he use to like to do. Axel is becoming more verbal and consistently using the appropriate word for some objects. He says daddy/dadda/dad, ball, dog, water/aqua, banana (nana for all food), mama (at times) and book. He is also starting to copy what we say. He said Touis after I continued to say Touis a few days ago. I was quite shocked, but more excited then anything. 
It is really cool to see him start to communicate. At times he even says what he wants instead of crying/screaming. This is pretty consistent with food and water, but not as consistent with other things. He has officially entered the screaming phase and doesn't really cry anymore, but rather screams at the top of his lungs. It has been quite the adjustment for us because it is hard to let him "cry it out" when he is screaming. Luckily, he usually stops in 5-10 minutes, although in the middle of the night he can cry off an on for up to two hours. We are not quite sure why he is crying, but we hope it stops soon. He will sleep for 20 minutes then cry for 10 and do this off an on. It usually happens when he wakes at 2 or 3am for a sippy cup of milk. Luckily this only happens 2-3 times per week. The rest of the week he is getting up around 9pm or sleeping straight through the night (1-2x/week). When Axel does sleep through the night he likes to wake at 5:30am. It was tough on me last week when I wasn't feeling well to get up so early, but it is nice to have him sleep 11 hours straight. Last week was the first time Axel did that 3 nights in a row. Yeah for us!
Axel is starting to eat more "real meals". He had his first almond butter sandwich. It took him nearly 2 hours to eat, but he did finish it. You can see how excited he was.
He loves to do anything that we do or that the dogs do. Speaking of dogs you can see Axel copying Louis with the sock in his mouth. 
Other new things are that we think he may have developed a soy sensitivity. We are almost done with the two weeks of no soy. Instead he is having goats milk or rice milk. The allergist is worried that he won't get enough protein with just rice milk so we are using a super expensive formula a couple of times per day mixed in with the rice milk. Keith and I can't wait until he is really eating "grown up" foods including meat. Axel does seem to eat whatever we give him, especially if we are eating it, but meat of any kind can be hit or miss depending on the day. Axel absolutely loves to read and play with books. He can spend up to thirty minutes flipping the pages and looking at the pictures. 
Axel has become quite the funny guy and started a funny laugh. If you listen closely you can hear it in the video below. Other highlights over the past two weeks are that Gramma Susan came to visit for a day and Keith and I bought a house! Gramma had a great time trying to keep up with Axel. You can see here how happy Axel was to have her for a playmate for the day :)
As far as the house goes, Keith and I couldn't be happier. We have been looking for a couple of years online and Axel and I started touring homes a couple of months ago. After 4 offers we finally got one that was accepted. We can't believe we will be moving in a couple of months to a HUGE 4 bedroom, 2.5 bath home in Saratoga! We are so very blessed and are looking forward to having people over. More room for our barbecues! Ok, I think that is it for now. Have a great week!
