Climbing Axel

Our neighbors built a chicken coup over the past month. Two weeks ago the project was finalized and the four hens were purchased and brought home. Annika and Marlena were super excited to show off the new hens. Here Axel is petting Kermit. Kermit, Hermione, Little and Mac were a bit timid since they had just arrived at their new location. You might think the names are a little funny, like I did.You may not be surprised that the only person to give a female name to her hen was Elizabeth, Annika's mom.

 Speaking of Kermit. Axel watched the first 40 minutes or so of the new Muppet movie. He was excited to see what Marlena was talking about when she said she named her hen after Kermit the frog. Axel never finished watching the movie because he is just too busy at nights these days. The tradition of playing with Rishaan and Max each night has continued. Before we go out we eat and bathe and after he plays it is a quick teeth brushing and book and then it is bedtime. It is a little sad that the days are getting shorter so quickly, since that cuts down on the boys playtime each night. We are trying to figure out what we are going to do when it is completely dark out at 7pm. We are thinking about rotating backyards so that the kids can play at a minimum from 7-730pm each night, since all of the parents enjoy chatting while the kids get some playtime before bed.

Axel's sleeping is all over the place. He can go days without a nap and only sleep 10 hours at night. Other days he can take a two hour nap. Last night he slept 12 hours for the first time in months it seems. He wakes almost every night lately because he is uncomfortable and itchy. He wakes for aquafor despite the fact that we apply is 4-6 times per day, or despite taking a dose of Zyrtec. He has had a bad rash all over him for a couple of weeks and it doesn't seem to want to go away. I am a bit frustrated with his difficulty falling asleep and him still waking at night and the fact that his skin doesn't seem to be improving. I keep putting off going back to the dermatologist because the end result is no new ideas or more 2.5% hydro cortisone or trying the medication that Grandpa Bruce uses.

Axel is really into building things. He is extremely creative and comes up with cool designs. Here he built a "super tall Christmas tree".

 Here is one of my favorite creations; a long Lego train.

Last Friday we went to the annual celebration of the JW House which is a house on Kaiser's campus for kids going through cancer. J.W. was a patient at Kaiser who died of cancer at the young age of 16 after fighting the disease since age 4 years old. He dreamed of building this before he died and was able to witness the project's opening before his death. Each year there is a big party with amazing food and fun for children. Here Axel is in the playhouse that is in the backyard of the JW House.

 Keith raced his last two official races of the season this past Sunday in Oakland. Axel and I watched the first race with Touis and his new owner Ia. Axel and I then headed to fairyland while daddy raced his second race. Kids are funny.... Axel associates Oakland and fairyland with Auntie since she lives there. When we were headed over he asked if Auntie was going to be there. I told him that I didn't think so, but that he could call her to ask. He called her and left a message and then proceeded to ask me when she was going to arrive. After being there for 30 minutes and asking a total of five time he finally realized that Auntie was not going to come. Hopefully, Auntie was having fun settling in to her new place.

 Axel was in a daze the first 30 minutes until we rode the Jolly Trolly and ate a snack. All it took was his favorite train ride and some sugar from a fudge bar to perk him up for the next two hours.

 He ran around like a crazy man climbing up and down things and running around the park until 4pm. At 4pm they have the last puppet show of the day. Here he is completely engrossed in the show.

 Axel has finally reached the climbing phase. Most kids climb from a young age, but Axel got the bug just about a month ago. He climbs up everything and then likes to swing or jump off. He mastered climbing up the slide as well as the climbing structures at the play ground across the street from our house. He has also mastered jumping off benches and other objects that are higher than I like :)

I was going to give more updates on Axel, but we need to head to the library to check out stunt birds. Apparently, we are going to witness singing birds who can ride bikes and skate boards! Have a nice weekend!

Busy times, then sick times

I am sorry for the delay in posts, but as you may have guessed from the title I was a bit under the weather, which means no new posts! I will back track to where we left off almost a month ago! It is hard to believe that much time has passed.  It looks like I never shared about Axel's and my playdate at the Palo Alto Museam and Zoo with my friend Tiffany and her daughter Avery four weeks ago today. Axel always thoroughly enjoys himself. He loves both the animals outside as well as the cool science projects inside.

 I discovered Axel's first mole the other day as he was being Mr. Silly and wearing the neck of his shirt around his chest.

Three weeks ago Axel and I had a marathon weekend. On Saturday we drove to Auntie's house in Oakland, then the four of us caravaned to Orinda to ride a super long and awesome kiddie train.

We also stopped by the park's small farm as animals are always a big hit with Axel. We all then headed to Benecia to visit my Aunt Cindy and second cousin Kaylee. After a fun filled day, Axel and I then headed home.

 As you can see he was extremely tired as the day did not allow for any nap time. He slept most of the hour drive home :)

 On Sunday we woke up and packed the car then headed for Vacaville to watch daddy race. Grandma Susan met us there. We enjoyed a not so delicious Italian lunch and then a walk to a grassy field where we enjoyed watching daddy and the other racers fly by. The visit was short, but we were really glad to catch up with Grandma Susan.

Axel has read several books over the past year about caterpillars, cocoons and butterflies. For over 6 months after bath time Axel pretends that he is a caterpillar inside a cocoon. He then pretends to be in there for 5 weeks (that is the amount of time he picked when he first started doing this).  He use to turn into a beautiful butterfly and flap his wings, but for the past couple of weeks he decided he wants to turn into a cat. So now he turns into a lovely cat that meows, while we cover him in aquafor and put his pj's on.

 Axel is just over 3 feet tall and weighs about 27lbs. I loaned or bumbo chair to a girlfriend whose son is now 5 months. She gave me back the chair because her son's thighs are too big to fit into the chair. She gave me her tray. Axel was very curious and before I could even set the chair down he climbed into it and placed the tray on. He then proceeded to play in it. The following day he wanted to have his snack in the chair. I finally managed to get it up into the attic today. Axel is still wearing 24 month/ 2T clothing, but his feet no longer feet into the 12 month socks. We went today and bought 12 pairs of 2-3T socks. So slowly but surely he is growing.....just at his own pace :)

 I gave Axel a hair cut this past Saturday. Here are a couple of pictures of how cute and old he looks with his new short hair. I think he looks absolutely handsome and like a little, big boy.

We wanted to give a shout out to Grandma Sonia and Grandpa Bruce for their 23 years together. 

We want to wish Auntie Shannon a very happy 35th birthday tomorrow and last we want to wish an early happy birthday to Grandma Sonia!

Axel's going to be a big brother!

                                               our baby girl at 16 weeks 5 days gestation

 We are super excited to announce that we are having a baby girl. She is expected to arrive in mid January, with the due date of January 17th. This child comes after years of prayers, lots of patience, faith and trust in our wonderful Lord and Savior. The time that has passed in between Axel's arrival and now has been a huge time of growth for the three of us. I can honestly say that we are all ready for this child. God has been working extremely hard to prepare us for his work and the coming of this second child I cannot wait to meet her. Axel is going to be an amazing big brother. He has been praying for a baby brother and sister for well over a year. He was a little disappointed when Keith and I had to break the news that only one of them were going to come at a time, but after a little explaining he took to the idea of having one at a time very well. The only catch is he thinks one is coming after Christmas this year and the other is coming after the following Christmas. Luckily, every day he is maturing and his comprehension and understanding only gets better by the day.

Two weeks ago, Axel participated in his first kiddie bike race.  Keith and I were really proud of him for wanting to participate. They get a bib number (383 for Axel) and a medal for finishing. He rode a few hundred feet with over a hundred other children under 7 years old. The children 8 to 12 luckily have their own race where they complete the entire course of about 1 mile.

As you can see from the picture it was complete chaos, but Axel did great going at his own pace and taking in his surroundings. He likes people cheering more than he likes being competitive about winning, which is a great trait, that Keith and I haven't always possessed. After the race I bought Axel some Italian ice, which he loved and then we watched daddy race. I was extremely famished after the long day of driving and being in the heat. My lovely husband kindly suggested that we stop by Applebees (after going to two gyros places that were closed). If you know us and my husband you know that we NEVER EAT OUT. And when we do it is usually take out, which would have been the case if we could have purchased gyros. I was happily shocked and enjoyed a steak and potato meal that I don't make at home. Axel was a trooper and had fun doing the activities page with daddy. For not going out very much I was amazed at how good Axel was. 

Last weekend was birthday party weekend for us. We had two birthday parties on Saturday, but only managed to make it to one gathering. Here Axel is celebrating our friend's twins 1 year birthday. He had a blast playing with the other kids and adults who attended. 

 And of course he completely enjoyed the birthday cake.....I mean frosting :) We went to a neighbor's house to celebrate his birthday on Sunday. Axel played in the water and of course enjoyed more birthday frosting, but I was unable to get any pictures.

 When I picked up Axel on Monday he was playing dress up with the older kids at daycare. He had these shoes on and kindly asked Angela, his care taker, if he could take them home to show daddy and Louis. He was more than excited to wear them home and then to wear them back to school the next day. He walked and jumped around the driveway for about 15 minutes before going into the house.

Almost every night after dinner until dark or about 8pm Axel rides his bike and plays with the neighborhood kids. This tradition started just a day or two after we purchased Axel's new bike at the beginning of the summer and has become quite the tradition. On Thursday night this week Keith snapped a quick photo of the Szolusha boys, which I thought was a very cute picture. 

 Here is "the crew", or the current crew until the three new arrivals. The current crew is Rishaan, Axel, Max and his sister Sophia. Our next door neighbor, Rishaan's mom (who is the one on the left) is due a week after me. Rishaan and Axel are only 10 days apart in age. Rishaan's mom is picking the date of January 18th as her c-section date so our little girls could be closer in age than our two boys. Pretty crazy, huh? Our new neighbor who is suppose to move in sometime next year (after fully rebuilding the house) is expecting in October, but I am not sure what the gender is. Anyways, the three amigos have a great time together and were singing up a storm while sitting in Max's yard. We are very grateful for having such wonderful neighbors and look forward to our children growing up together.

That is it for now. We have another action packed weekend next weekend so hopefully I will have some good pictures of Axel with family having fun soon. Take care and God Bless!

Summer time

Our summer months continue to be busy. It seems every weekend we have a BBQ or two. The past couple of weeks have been a little rough for me as I have been trying to recover from a virus I must have picked up with our travels. Summer colds are always difficult because life seems busier and rest seems less common. Luckily, I am slowly getting better, despite the sleep deprivation from watching the Olympics and out busy social schedule. Axel appeared to have the same virus but he was well within a couple of days. Like father ,like son; they both have awesome immune systems.

A couple of weeks ago Axel decided he wanted to help me fold the towels. He was a great sport and followed instructions quite well. I think he is a natural :)

 Last Friday Axel and I met Rishaan and his mother at Vasona Park. Axel and Rishaan had a blast going on the train and playing in the park. Here they are in the fake airplane flying to Boston and Georgia (per Axel and Rishaan, respectively).

 Last weekend was a hot one. Axel wanted to play on the slip n slide. He had more fun playing around the slip n slide and with the "football" players it came with. I was cracking up watching him :)

 Last weekend Axel also received a few gifts in the mail from his great Aunt Lois. Axel was so intrigued with the musical spoons that she brought to Boston I asked her if I could purchase some for him to have. She quickly responded with, "I have children ones at home that I give out to the students when I do my children's program". Great, I said. And low and behold just a week later Axel has his very own at home. He absolutely loves them and is constantly playing along with music from a CD or with something he is singing himself.

 Last weekend Axel surprised me when he got up from his nap (his only nap in the three days he was at home). I heard him opening and closing his dresser drawers and then I heard him go to the bathroom. After a minute or two, I went to check on him because he didn't come running out like he usually does. Instead, after changing his clothes, he decided to comb his hair with water. I was extremely proud to see him so proud of himself for being a big boy.

 For the first time ever Axel said, "Mommy, I want to use the fancy cart" at the grocery store. He has ridden in one of these before a year or two ago. I think this was at Home Depot or something of the sort, but he lost interest in it and has never asked to ride in one again. I was proud of him for wanting to do something new. He was very cute and had everyone we passed laughing. He kept saying, "beep, beep", to anyone that was in the aisle and made great sound effects to the steering wheel moving and us trying to make the turns from aisle to aisle.

 We went to two BBQ's last weekend, which made our days action packed. This weekend has been nice and mellow. Keith left yesterday afternoon for a race and arrived home this afternoon. Axel and I have had some great down time playing inside, outside at the park, and watching the Olympics. He was missing daddy this morning and decided to make a game up that included him preparing to go to daddy's race. Here he is all ready to go. Luckily tomorrow we will be going to watch daddy race two races in the afternoon so Axel won't have to pretend.

Next weekend is another busy weekend with three birthday party BBQ's. Keith's and my four year anniversary is this coming Wednesday as well. I probably won't find time to write, but definitely check back in a couple of weeks for some possibly exciting news!

4th of July, Keith bday and summer vacation

Get ready for the longest blog thus far. I will start with the 4th of July. We had a lovely day and enjoyed the visit with Touis and his new family. The Swedish couple he is with are extremely loving and caring not only to all of their pugs, but to their friends and family as well. There were 8 pugs at the celebration and all of their owners were dog lovers. A couple of the owners started dancing with their pugs so Keith, Touis and Axel joined in on the fun. 

 I got to enjoy about 30 minutes or so of lap time from Touis. I got choked up thinking about all of the good memories with Touis and was glad that he is happy and doing well with his new family.

Keith asked for a mellow birthday because he wasn't ultra excited about turning 37. He went to a race and I made him a nice meal. We then went for ice cream because he didn't want a cake. Luckily, when we arrived the next day at his sister's house she had a cake waiting for him. His sister, dad and niece and nephew were there to sing him happy birthday, along with Axel and I, of course.

The next day we spent the morning in Boston. Hannah and Axel had fun playing in the 'Duck pond' and sitting on the fake ducks that were in a beautiful park across the street. I can't recollect the name right now, but it was filled with people lounging and eating lunch, along with several groups of kids from day cares and summer camp programs.

The next several pictures are all of Hannah and Axel.

They got along extremely well. They were absolutely adorable together.

It didn't matter where we were or what they were doing, they were always having fun together.

The only thing that is a bummer about how great they get along is the fact that we only see them every 1 to 1.5 years because they live across the country. We will just have to concentrate on the time that they do get to spend together and be grateful for their instant friendship.

Here is a cute picture of Alex and Grandpa Paul having a good time. It was great to have Grandpa Paul spend the week with us. All three kids enjoyed his company.

Almost every night we met up with one of Keith's high school or college buddies. On Tuesday night we met up with a college buddy, Brett, who had 6 year old twins and a 4 year old. They were a bit intimidating for Axel, but he joined right in on the fun. By the end of dinner he was punching them back (in a nice and playful way of course).

We went to a local farm that Josie is a member of. Here are the lovely siblings having fun pretending to ride horses. We saw a gigantic pig, learned how to comb horses hair and saw several rescued animals.

One of the highlights of the trip was playing candle pin bowling.

I look forward to this every time we go to Massachusetts. They have 10 narrow pins and a ball a little larger than a softball that weighs about a pound or so.

You get 3 balls per frame. We all enjoyed ourselves. This was Axel's first time and he caught on right away.

On Thursday night we managed to see our favorite couple and Keith's best buddy since 5 years old, the McCues. Their daughter is a month younger than Axel and they were instant friends, after a 20 minute warm up phase.

On Friday night Keith and I went out with a few of his friends. It happened to be the birthday of his friend 'Thompy' who deejays karaoke in his spare time. It had been a long time since we have been to a bar, but it was great sitting around chatting with his friends.

On Saturday, Keith got to catch up with most of his close friends from high school at the local brewery, Highlands. It was scorching hot and humid for us, but a good time was had by all. Here are a couple of pictures of him with his buddies and their children.

We ended the trip back at Brookline for Alex's 9th birthday. Keith was really happy to be able to spend the day with him.

Out of the 350 pictures, I unfortunately did not get any good photos of Keith's Aunt Lois and Uncle Paul, or Grandma Carol and Grandpa Kevin. Over half the pictures were blurry or had too much light from the sun. We had a wonderful time with everyone and were so glad to be able to see Lois, Paul, Carol, Kevin and all of Keith's wonderful friends! As far as the what is new with Axel. He has been through a huge growth spurt and grew over 1.5 inches and gained 2 lbs in 3 months. He is officially 3 feet tall and almost 27 lbs. He is still wearing 24 month clothing, but I think if he continues to grow as he has the first half of the year that we will be in 3T by the end of the year.

He continues to be Mr. Funny guy. He recently told me that he was born funny and that it is just in his bones. This is soooo true because he truly cracks me up. He continues to blow us away with his maturity, vocabulary and now his physical skills. He picked up hockey in just a few days watching Alex play. Ok, that is enough for now. Thanks for reading and check back soon!