Grandpa Burgess Comes to town!

First, I want to wish my mom, Grandma Burgess, Grandma Goldstein and cousins Kendra and Michaela a very happy birthday! This weekend is always an action packed one so I hope that all of you know that you were in my thoughts on your special day even if I was too lazy to pick up the phone or write a simple email!

Axel and I were blessed with a nice visit from my dad. Axel had a great time with his Grandpa Burgess, despite suffering from a cold :) Axel made sure to show Grandpa all around the back yard.

We all went to lunch, then a walk and then to the local farmer's market for dinner, where we all enjoyed the best crepes ever!!!

Axel and I went for our first Burley ride together without the infant car seat inside. It took a little adjusting since he was not as cozy as he usually is, but luckily we were able to find him a comfy position so that he could take a little cat nap. We were waiting until his helmet arrived and although it has proven to be a fun toy in the house, it is not something that he enjoys wearing when he is in the Burley or on his bike. Hopefully as he gets bigger he will get more accustomed to wearing it.

Axel continues to want to do everything that mommy and daddy does. Here he is checking out the tortilla chips mommy just snacked on.

I was a little scared he would choke on them, but he did surprisingly well!

Axel is starting to walk more, but he likes to do it when it is more of a game. He puts his hands up in the air and then walks back and forth between mommy and daddy practically diving into our arms. Both Keith and I think it will be any day now that he decides he is a big boy and walks on his own. We say that because a new game he started the past week or so it practicing falling onto his buttom. He really seems to enjoy it. He is also practicing hard at standing up from sitting, on his own, without any support. He is almost there!

Axel is continuing to work hard at his vocabulary. His new words this week are "uh-oh" and "off". He has fully mastered saying "up" along with his other commonly used words of dad, ball, dog, water, nana (banana), and duck.

We hope you all had a great weekend! Keith and I have had a wonderful weekend of cleaning out the garage, bike riding and family time. As we begin to clean things out the reality of moving is setting in and we are looking forward to moving into our new home in just a few short weeks!

Bananas, bikes and more

Axel had a great week. He has really turned a corner in his independent play, vocabulary and motor skills. It is really nice to be able to make dinner and get things done around the house while he plays. I still play with him and interact with him, but I don't have to be right next to him, which is such a nice change.

Axel is also imitating more and more. At the Doctor's office yesterday, I said "up Axel" when he signaled he wanted me to pick him up and right in front of his doctor he said "up". We are all really excited about the communication that is developing. Axel gets so proud of himself when he is able to articulate what he wants and so do we. Speaking of the Dr.'s office, I took Axel yesterday for a weight check and to get his 12 month shots. Axel had a huge decrease in food consumption for almost 2 weeks, but it is getting better again. The coolest thing happened and despite Axel's decreased food intake he gained the most he has gained in 1 month since he was a couple months old. Yep, he gained 1 lb and 3 oz in 1 month's time. Yeah, Axel now weighs in at 19 lbs and 13.5 oz. He also gained 1/2 an inch and is 29.5 inches tall. His shoes are also starting to fit and have almost become snug in a couple weeks time. He is still wearing 9 month pants and shirts (I packed them away, but had to get them back out since the weather turned cold again) and his shoes are size 3, which I believe are for 6-12 months, but all in all he is growing and that what counts.

Axel did great getting his shots yesterday. He is just a big boy and really doesn't cry. He almost kicked the nurse because he is so strong, but the nurse did a great job of getting out of the way and then getting a better grip on his leg the next time she tried. I was worrried about the MMR shot, but so far so good. No fever or rash. Because of Axel's increase in height and coordination he is riding his bike like crazy. It is so cool to see him mount off and on, walk forward/backward, and push and pull his bike in every direction.


Axel continues to crawl up and over everything possible. We have to move the doggy step away from the couch so he won't climb up on the couch and coffee table, but he decided it was still fun to climb up and over. He has fallen off a couple of times, but surprisingly it doesn't stop him. Axel's favorite food continues to be banana's. He has now mastered eating banana's like we do! He continues to be a little investigator and had nearly an hour of fun going through everything in my purse. Daddy taught Axel how to draw this past week as well. Axel now wants to draw all of the time. This has become one new trick to get Axel to eat :) The only problem is that he is drawing on his high chair and then occasionally tries to eat the pen or marker. Here is Daddy and Axel on Wednesday night, while mommy was riding her bike. They have been having tons of fun together as you can see in the picture.

Happy Hollow!

Axel went on another fun "field trip" with mommy. This time we met up with some of my co worker's and their kids. It was really fun. Axel went on his first ride. He had fun for the first half of the ride before he decided he didn't like it. The funny thing was he acted like he wanted to get on it again so I put him on it again just to have him cry the whole time. Both Maria and Milo, who are both two, did a great job of taking care of Axel while they rode together. Axel was also able to pet and feed the sheep and goat. He had an absolute blast and squealed with delight as he ran/walked after them (holding on to my hand of course) and calling them all doggies. I am bummed I did not have my camera on me for this. I also did not get to capture him climbing up the play equipment or going down the slides with me or his first ride on the carousel. He actually didn't like the carousel. I think it was a bit too long of a wait for it to start and he had already pet Mr. Gorilla and was ready to be done. Axel continues to develop his personality and often decides he doesn't like to be changed. I often loose the wrestle match and Axel walks and plays half naked for awhile until I can find the perfect object/toy to distract him with. If this phase continues for much longer I am threatening Keith that we will have to go to disposables, although I don't think Axel's skin will like it very much. Speaking of skin, Axel's skin has been horrible again. He had blood all over his sheets from him scratching so much that he bleeds. We ran out of prescription medication. I am now using the aquaphor 4-5times per day which the doctor says if his skin stays hydrated he shouldn't need the prescription medication. I am NOT convinced, but I don't know if I want the side effects of long term topical steroid use or the other options which have a low chance of leading to lymphoma.
Anyone with any experience please advise!!!

I will leave you on a happy note with Axel being his creative and fun self. First is a video of Axel dancing and second is a video of Axel's favorite new game. He remembered the tent and tunnel at Grandma's house and decided to make a similar game with his high chair. I was surpised at how clever he was when I first saw this a few days ago, but now it is a part of his daily routine.

Fairytale Land...

Axel and I have had an eventful week. We went to Grandma's house and she took us to Fairytale Land. We all had an absolute blast. Here are several photos of our fun field adventure.
Look at the cow Grandma!
The goat is pretty cool too!
But I think the kids around me are even more interesting....
Look how tall, I mean short I am!!!

The cheese tunnel is like the tent and tunnel Grandma bought me!
I see you Grandma!
The donkey is like a big dog....or is it?!
Axel also enjoyed the ducks outside of Fairytale Land.
Axel took his first bath in a real bath tub. He had so much fun playing. It was nice to see him enjoy it, since the last few weeks Axel can't wait to get out of his little bath tub. We can't wait to move so that we have a big boy bath tub that works :)
Grandma also surprised Axel will a tent and tunnel which was good for hours of entertainment. You can see here how much fun we all had.
He also loved the stereo. It did not take him long to figure out how to turn it off an on.
I forgot to mention in the last post that Axel had cut 4 teeth three weeks ago and is now a big boy with 6 teeth. I think more are on the way soon as he appears to want to chew on everything again. I also wanted to mention Axel's new bedtime is between 6:30 and 7pm. We are excited that he is able to stay up later and that he is starting to sleep through the night more regularly. Hopefully his sleep will be consistent soon so that Keith and I can finally start sleeping through the night ourselves again!

Last I leave you with a cute video of Axel being the funny guy that he is. Atleast Grandma and I got a good laugh out of this. Enjoy!

two long weeks..

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!

Axel Walks!!!!

I know I just posted, but I couldn't wait until next week to share the news. This afternoon we spent the day in Santa Cruz with Auntie Shannon and Ryan watching some of my teammates race one of my favorite races. When we arrived home we thought Axel would be really tired and cranky, but boy were we wrong. Axel was ready to continue to play outside and when we came in to wind down for the day Axel decided it was time he start walking. Yes that is right! After months of walking holding onto our hands and cruising walls and furniture Axel can finally walk!

Here are a couple of cute videos of his first few trips around the house. You can tell mommy and daddy are still nervous about him hitting his head on our hard wooden furniture and floors, but we can't help that we are first time parents :). Oh, and Axel's top left front tooth decided to make its full entrance today as well! What a four day weekend for me, 2 teeth and walking all in one weekend. The greatest thing about it, is that both of us were home to witness the great moment!!! Have a great week!

Crazy little Axel

First I have to start off and say that I was wrong about Axel's tooth. On Monday I could fully see and feel Axel's right upper tooth and the left upper tooth that I thought beat the right side is still just one little pointed edge one week later. Sunday night the right upper tooth fully cut through even though I couldn't feel any sharp edges on Sunday morning. Anyways, Axel has been a fun and crazy little terror these days. He is climbing on, through or in anything and everything he possibly can. It doesn't matter if it is the dog, a bench, a step, the doggy door, a pile of clothes or daddy, Axel wants to be on top of it. It is cute, but at the same time I now feel like I can't take my eyes of him, and I was just getting comfortable leaving him for a minute or two unattended. Looks like it is back to picking him up and bringing him into the bathroom or kitchen to play!

Speaking of doggies. Axel continues to love them. So much so I am starting to wonder if he thinks he is a dog. He has been trying to put the doggy collar and leash on for days now. He also learned how to bark and continues to try to climb through the doggy door.

On an even funnier note it appears that eating correlates to an itchy scalp and not a meal goes by without some of it ending up in his hair. Axel continues to do well with using the spoon for about 5 total mouthfuls before he decides to play bang and fling the food as well as dunk the hand and splash the yogurt!
The weather here in sunny California has not been so sunny. It appears we are truly getting April showers for the first time since I have moved back here. Luckily for Axel he is almost big enough for the rain jacket that Gramma Susan and Auntie Shannon got him.
With that said we finally had spring like weather this weekend and Axel got to wear a cute outfit his great Aunt June sent him as well as the sandals that daddy bought him. Sooo cute!

You can see how big he is getting......