Thanksgiving and more

Last Wednesday a coworker of mine had a fun lunch time activity for all of us. We all made turkeys made of candy. She is so clever and creative. I had a blast making this for Axel.  Axel enjoyed eating it more than he enjoyed the turkey creation itself. 

 Thursday was a long day. The Szolushas got up early and were on the rode to the base of Mt. Hamilton well before 8am. Keith raced up the 17 mile climb while Axel and I drove up it. After cheering daddy on we had a quick interview with Indie TV and then headed to Galt for an asian cuisine dinner at my Aunt Susan's house. We had a beautiful drive down the backside of Mt Hamilton and then continued on another twisty rode for a total of almost 50 miles of back roads. We were 5 miles from I-5 when Keith and I heard a cough, then a burp and before I could fully stop the car the projectile vomiting. Poor Axel got car sick for the first time. No wonder why he didn't want to eat his lunch. Luckily, I brought several changes of clothes, but was bummed his cute outfit was ruined for the day. We had a great time visiting family,but were glad to make it home just after 8pm that night.

 On Friday, we ordered our new fake 9 foot Christmas tree which should be arriving by the end of the week.  In order to satisfy my usual tradition of decorating for Christmas the weekend after Thanksgiving, Axel and I decorated the rest of the house and will save the tree for when it arrives. I was so excited to put up some of the new decorations that my Aunt Cindy gave me. Here is my first Nativity scene. I am proud to finally have one to display. Axel and I also love all of the other decorations that my Aunt passed on and had a blast putting decorations around the house. Axel was more than cute when he was picking out what decorations he wanted for his room and bathroom.

 Axel and I run errands all of the time together. Every once in awhile he plays this game where he sits in the car. I tell him I can help him down and he can come with me or he can come in by himself when he is ready. this weekend he decided he wanted to stay in the car. I left him and went inside. Here is a picture of him finally out of the car screaming mommy every minute or so. I was watching him from inside the house waiting for him to come in on his own. Finally, I was able to coax him in without having to go outside and pick him up by telling him that I was going to decorate the ginger bread train by myself. It is funny how stubborn he is and the power struggle games he comes up with.

 Despite, the above incident, we had a great time decorating the ginger bread train. I purchased it last year when everything was on sale. it worked well for the most part, except the icing. I couldn't kneed the icing to a smooth enough consistency to spread. It came out in big chunks and we had to spread it by hand. It also dried within a couple of minutes because it was so old. I think I would purchase an old kit again despite the frosting issue.

 I was telling my coworker about the sea room mural in the baby room. She said that she had the whole sea room theme of bedding, lamp and valence. I picked it up last week and was super excited to see that it matched really well. This is the first time that we have a fully coordinated, matching room. I guess it should be fitting for a girl :)

 It is hard to believe that she will be here in just a few short weeks. I am hoping she doesn't make too early of an entrance because it will be nice to enjoy Christmas with Axel first. Besides, my dad and Sonia don't arrive until January 12th, so we won't have anyone to watch Axel until then anyways.

Thanks for reading!

November Fun

It is hard to believe that Thanksgiving will be here in a few short days. The Szolusha's had our annual pre-thanksgiving feast with our close friends. We had a great time and our 20 lb turkey was full consumed in 20 minutes flat!

Axel continues to amaze us. As you can see from the picture he looks like a little "big" man. I love his hair this short because it does make him look more mature. 

We had a week long of very cold weather. We had to bundle up more than we are use to for this time of year. Axel asked me as the car window was defrosting why we weren't driving one morning this week. I told him because the wind shield was iced over and I couldn't see out the window until the frost was completely gone. Daddy came to the rescue after 5 minutes by pouring some hot water over the windshield so I wouldn't be late for work !

 Axel's babysitter, Annika, was on the varsity volleyball team this year. We had the privilege of watching them play in the second round of tournament play for the state championship. Unfortunately, they lost, but we had fun cheering her on.

 You know it is officially the holiday season in the Szolusha house because you can smell pumpkin in the air! Here Axel is helping daddy make yummy pie crust. We have now made and consumed 5 pumpkin pies so far this year.

This past Thursday, Axel and I were able to see the happy bird show again. This time it was at the Los Gatos library. It was just as good, if not better than the first show we saw last month. 

 As I mentioned we had our annual pre-Thanksgiving turkey feast yesterday. We had a wonderful time and want to thank our friends for sharing in the holiday spirit with us. Here is Axel playing with Alex. Alex turned 2 in August and is the son of Keith's study partner from MIT. It was really cool to see the two of them hanging out. Axel read to Alex for nearly an hour and showed him how to use the potty like a big boy. This was the best that they have every gotten along. Alex is finally old enough to interact with Axel and Axel loves to play with kids he can be in charge of. I think that Axel is finally ready to be a big brother.

Axel has found a new love for pinball again. He has been playing over the past two weeks and has become quite good at it. Here is a short video of him playing a ball. You may be able to tell that he is not just trying to hit the ball, but he is trying to aim for the colored back board in order to open the eyes and get to play double ball. I can't believe a 3 year old can pick up on strategy, but obviously my son is a product of his father and completely gets games. I am not sure if I mentioned previously, but Axel is really into any type of game. We now play uno, gold fish, candy land, chutes and ladders, bingo, and zingo. He also is getting really good at hitting the ball from both sides as well as throwing with both arms! As Axel says he is strong in both arms. 

Axel has also started to come a long way with food again. I have make a pack with myself that he needs to eat the food that I cook, so most nights he is actually consuming the dinner that I have prepared. Only a couple of times per week do I let him eat a quick meal of macaroni and cheese while we eat fish or something a bit too spicy for his liking. It is one of the most exciting things for me as a parent to only have to cook one meal for the entire family!

We want to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving!

Halloween Festivities

The past few weeks have been filled with Halloween related fun. We took Axel to Lemos Farm again this year. The only difference was he was with his friends Max and Rishaan, which made the day that much better. I would have to say Axel's favorite part was feeding the goats like last year, although he said he wasn't going to feed them this year. 

He continues to love animals and I am curious to see if this continues as he gets older as well.

This year Axel wasn't the only one who didn't want to participate in the pony ride. Max also decided to watch from the sidelines with Axel while Rishaan and Sophia, Max's little sister were the brave soles of the group. Sophia didn't make it more than one time around before she cried and was taken off to be reunited with her mom, but the three moms were all still impressed with the 18 month olds bravery.

The second big hit was the train. However, the line was extremely long and it took over 30 minutes for the three boys to wait their turn.

Luckily, Lemos farm expects this and they had rocking horses in the center of the half circle line which allowed the kids to burn some energy and the parents to keep watch of their children.

Finally, it was time to hop on the train. Unfortunately, there was not enough room for daddy and I, but Axel thoroughly enjoyed it despite our absence.

Here is a shot of the three boys on a coin operated ride. You can see they were having a blast!

Keith and I had our annual date. Yes that is right, we go on one night time date per year. This year Keith's company party theme was "Viva Las Linear".

We were the only couple that we saw who asked the show girls not to be in our picture. We initially felt bad, but since we hardly get any photos together, we were happy with the results of this photo opportunity.

 They gave us $25 chips to start the night off. It went to over an hour of entertainment as we played for prizes with this money machine as well as craps. All in all it was a good time and I look forward to next year's date night :)

Axel received several hand me down costumes from my cousin Jill, who has 3 boys. This year he chose the fireman costume. He had a great time at school dancing, making Halloween decorations and eating a yummy cupcake.

He had even more fun trick or treating. We started the night out with Annika and her friend Alina.

Axel was a bit shy at our first house. It was a good thing that we did not start with his friends because it took him about 5 minutes to decide if he actually wanted to take a piece of candy or not. Luckily, he got into the spirit of taking candy from people, although, unlike his friends he made sure to think about exactly what piece he wanted.

He was very strategic about taking an equal amount of chocolate and hard candy/ suckers. He was also really good about giving daddy the candy with peanut butter in it when there were no other choices.

At 7pm we met up with the crew and then proceeded to trick or treat along our street for the next hour. I believe they all had a great time, although Axel ended up hanging out more with Sophia then Max or Rishaan since they were running from house to house and skipping several houses at a time. Axel and Sophia were more into taking their time and taking in their surroundings than running. I am sure that will change next year for Axel, but we will have to wait and see.

It is hard to believe Thanksgiving is around the corner. We have our annual pre-Thanksgiving meal coming up in 2 weeks and will then head to Sacramento for the actual holiday.

Fall Festivities

I will start where we left off a couple of weeks ago. The bird show Happy Birds, that we went to at a local library was so much fun we can't wait until they come again to a different local library in November. I highly recommend seeing their show. Their parrots and Cockateals (sp?) really do sing, talk, ride bikes, skateboard, roller skate, play basketball and more. Axel was smiling ear from ear the entire 30+ minutes. 

As I mentioned in the last post, Axel is all about climbing and jumping off things these days. Here is a perfect example of him jumping off the bin of baby clothes I went through. I have a video of it that I will try to also post.

The last weekend in September was an awesome weekend for me because I was feeling stressed with everything that needs to get done before the holidays start and the new baby arrives. Keith did a ton of work in the garage and it is about 70% organized. Even if nothing else was done I can easily get my car back into the garage which is my number one priority to help me get both kids into the car and out the door in a timely manner without having to worry about defrosting the car windows in the morning. It is only a big deal where we live because I leave early for work. Keith also helped me get down all of the baby "stuff". I was able to go through everything to figure out what we need and don't need. In addition, we have started the hunt for new Axel bedroom furniture, which needs to get purchased in the next month to ensure that we receive it before January. So, yeah for me! No more stress :)

Last weekend, Keith started his low key hill climb race series, which is always fun for the whole family. I made the first patch of pumpkin cookies that were a big hit to all of our TBZ cycling team members, especially Axel. He had his two cookies consumed the first 5 minutes we were at the top of the Montebello.

On Saturday evening we went to a Pow Wow at the local college with our neighbors. Here Axel is having fun on daddy's shoulders watching the native American Indians dance.

The kids also loved watching the drummers. Often you will find Max with his arm wrapped around Axel. They are so cute.

And of course here is a group hug of the three musketeers, Rishaan, Max and Axel.

On Sunday last weekend we took Axel back to our local Pumpkin patch. This year we were able to hold the little chicks and pet the rabbit.

Here Axel and Rishaan our petting the kids, or baby goats. Axel and Rishaan were afraid of the little pigs because the pink one was a little aggressive at trying to sniff, lick and attempt to eat daddy's shoes. Good thing the goats were much more tame.

And we can't forget the fun daddy and Axel had painting the pumpkin!

Last I leave you with a picture of our typical weekly night occurrences. Now that it is dark at 7pm, the time that the boys are accustomed to playing with each other at the park, we play at Max's house in his front yard because of the nice flood lights that his parents had installed. Here they are playing clean up! Now maybe I should convince Keith to put up flood lights in our front yard so I can have the kids come clean up our front yard :)

On a different note, Axel is finally sleeping better at night and resumed his normal nap/quiet time schedule. He is also becoming his sweet self again with fewer screaming fits. I realized when I wasn't feeling well I let him push his boundaries too much and lost my temper a few times. Now that I am feeling better and able to maintain the boundaries through actions, both of our temperaments are back to normal.

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!