16 Months

Can you believe how much this baby has changed???? Here is a photo of Axel at around 2 months, and 16 months. It has taken us about this long to realize that he wasn't the cutest baby because we had baby blinders. But at the time, we thought he was the most beautiful thing ever! It's kind of amazing how that works.

This week, a friend needed help with a 16 month old who she was babysitting because she had hurt her back. I told her to bring him to our house because Axel would love having a friend to play with all day. We had a lot of fun, although he was a little hard to put down for a nap. We tried twice without luck, then Sharon ended up driving him around in her car until he fell asleep, then we transferred him to Axel's crib while Axel slept in his travel tent in our bedroom. When his mom came by to pick him up in the afternoon, she asked me regarding Axel: "So, can you just put him in his crib at bedtime and he'll sleep through the night?". I said yes, kind of surprised and was thinking "What else would you do??" She said that they had never been able to get their son to go to bed by himself, that for his naps they had to drive him around in the car then transfer him to his bed. Which isn't so bad, I have friends who have done this, but the worst part is that at bedtime they have to lay in bed with him until he goes to sleep, which takes an hour or so, then he wakes up a couple times each night needing them to rock him to sleep. She said she regretted never doing sleep training with him and that they were exhausted.


Eating lunch with his new friend, Ryan

I realized how ignorant I am about other parent's sleep schedules who have toddlers. I assumed that all babies 1 year old and older went to bed easily and slept through the night. I was immediately thankful that we started sleep training with Axel while he was young, and stuck with it. Because he has been sleeping 12 hours without waking up (unless he's teething or sick), since he was around 7 months old. It also reminded me of how hard sleep training was, and that lots of people give up!

So I gave her the name of the book I used, Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child, and told her to give it a try.

In the mud. He is part redneck, after all

I try to pride myself on keeping a tidy house. However, these days, it is getting harder and harder. Axel is kind of like Pigpen from Peanuts, wherever he goes, he takes with him a whirlwind of destruction. He likes to go through the house opening cupboards and cabinets and pull everything out, then go on to the next. He does not stop moving from the second he wakes up until the second his head hits his mattress. So we try to be outside a lot. However, it has been so hot and sunny that my skin is tired of sun! We are either at the beach, at our friend Olivia's pool, or playing with a tub of water in our yard. I was telling Olivia yesterday that I think Axel is a pretty easy baby. However, if I were a lazy person, Axel would be extremely difficult. I think we just match up really well because I am always moving as well!

Mommy and Daddy surf morning

I have found a couple of things that will keep him still though.....snacks! He is a very good eater, and eats almost everything I put on his plate. But I have found a couple of genius snack ideas that will get him to sit still in his high chair for about 1/2 hour, perfect for when I have to cook dinner! Here they are:

Drinking his Sili Squeeze smoothie

1. A chicken leg. Yes, weird, but my mom gave me this idea. He loves sucking on it and he loves it if there's a little meat on it.
2. Blueberries. They are small so they take a little work to pick up one by one. Totally worth the cost.
3. Smoothies. I make him a banana spinach smoothie every day to get him to eat some more vegetables. Sometimes I add a spoonful of peanut butter for protein. I put it in this thing called the Sili Squeeze, which is a silicone bottle with a spillproof lid. It's the best idea. I sometimes put yogurt or applesauce in it as well.
4. A teething feeder. Amazing contraption. I put in some crunchy fruit and it keeps him busy for a long time.

Since we have been working on our words lately, we've been doing a lot of pointing at objects and naming them. He still has a hard time saying them, but now I can ask him in Spanish "where is mommy's belly button" or "donde esta el ombligo de mama?" and he'll point to my belly button. He can do the same to daddy's as well. He can point to his toy monkey if we ask him, and some other things. So he understands, just can't say the words yet. I was talking to Naty and Olivia yesterday about Spanish, and we realized that there are really no easy baby words in Spanish. For example, in English, there are tons of easy one-syllable words like hat, cat, dog, bus, etc. But in Spanish all of these words have at least two syllables, sombrero, gato, perro, okay, bus is one syllable in Spanish, so I'll use that one. Anyways, it's harder with more syllables! So we're a work in progress, but it's coming.

Last Friday morning, my friend Jessica went into labor! She and her husband checked into the hospital late that morning, and our friends, Carolyn and Natalie eventually got there afterward. I went later in the afternoon once Johan had gotten back from work so he could watch Axel. When I arrived, Jess had been in labor for about 12 hours an was in a lot of pain. She had wanted to have a natural birth, so she had no meds. Yep, she's a rock star. Ella was the last to make it there. We all took turns massaging her back, saying comforting words, praying, encouraging, and just trying to keep the atmosphere encouraging and calm while Doug was coaching her step by step. Later that night, Natalie told me that Carolyn had overheard the nurses talking about how many people we were in the room with Jess. Since this was my first birth experience, I didn't know any better. I asked Natalie if people usually have many others in the room (since she's a doctor and has seen many, many births), she laughed and said "no, they probably think we're a cult or something". I thought it was funny that we must have seemed so weird. But we really don't care. Jess and Natalie were present for both of Carolyn's babies, and Natalie got to witness Axel's birth, so that's just how we do things because we all treat eachother like family.

Anyways, after a grueling 28 hours of labor, baby Owen Anderson was finally born! I am so thankful to have had the opportunity to experience the exhaustion, joy, pain, and perseverance of labor with Jessica and Doug. Especially because I don't know if I'll ever have a natural birth since I have already had a c-section. Yay for babies!!!

Summertime

Helping Dad wax his surfboard

In previous years, I was always kind of annoyed when I asked parents how old their baby was and they gave me the age in months. I always wondered "why don't they say a year and a half, instead of 16 months?" Now I understand, it's because during these first few years, each month the baby is changing so dramatically and each month is so different from the next that a 16 month old can be so much different from an 18 month old.

Which is why it's a little overwhelming to say what changes we've gone through already in this post. I guess I can try and summarize a little by saying that in this moment (16 months), life at home with Axel is so, so much fun right now and is much easier than it was during the crawling period (about 8-12 months). He is absolutely crazy with energy and doesn't stop moving. However, now that he's walking, he is exploring on his own and likes to be a little more independent. When he was crawling, we had to entertain him much more and help him see and experience things he couldn't on his own. So I have really appreciated my time with him lately.

Wearing his headphones like a DJ

I also LOVE that it is summer. The beach is such the perfect place for a baby his age. He loves the waves and will run into them with no fear. I recently started surfing with a Mom surf meetup group where the moms switch off watching each others kids so everyone can surf. It's the most genius idea ever. It's free fun that I feel so blessed to have access to every week. I appreciated the beautiful San Diego weather before, but having a baby in a place with beautiful weather makes life just that much easier and better. I don't know what we would do if we were stuck indoors all day long! I guess we'd have really nice skin.

He still takes 2 naps per day, between around 9-11 am, and 2-3:30 pm, then goes to bed around 6:30 pm and sleeps around 12 hours. We just went to his 15 month check up and vaccination. He was:

25 lbs 10 oz
33 inches tall
Still has an enormous head in the 99th percentile, I don't remember the circumference.

So I think he was about in the mid 80th percentile for height and weight. He hasn't really started talking yet, but we didn't expect any words out of him for a while since he's learning 3 languages. But his pediatrician said she'd like to hear him say 3 words by the time he's 18 months. So we've got homework to do! I do think he can say mamma, but he won't say it when I ask him who I am. We think he has said "grött", which is Swedish for "porridge", and I thought he said "agua", or water, but again, he doesn't say them consistently so I don't think that counts. Plus, speaking three languages, when he babbles, he might be saying words, but we don't know what language he's speaking! But it does amaze me that he understands me in Spanish. We talk all day in Spanish, so he understands very well all of the basic words and commands that we use every day.

He is also getting more and more personality every day. He really knows how to get people to notice him. He will smile at you, clap his hands in hopes you'll clap back with him, he'll laugh at you, yell at the top of his lungs, play peekaboo, all with the hopes of getting a little attention from anyone he can. He started getting stranger danger recently, so for the first couple of minutes around new people or in a new place, he'll cling to us, but eventually he'll be comfortable and will want to take off and explore.

Wiping down his high chair after lunch

His favorite play is doing things he sees us doing. He saw me with headphones on so he puts them on. He likes trying to change the tv with the remote control. He loves the vacuum and will take it around the house. I will turn it on with the hopes that he'll actually help me clean. He does a pretty good job! He gets under the coffee table, and even the sofa. Then when he's done, we wipe things down with a rag. He's very good at this too, he'll wipe down the tables and chairs, walls. He also loves to help me do the laundry by putting in or taking out clothes from the washer. Outdoors, he will rake or sweep with the broom. We got mulch from the dump and had it in a huge pile, and he had a blast picking it up and throwing it on the ground or putting it in the wheelbarrow. So I have my very own housekeeper, free of charge!

Trying to steal everyone's bocce ball

He also LOVES stairs. Going up, coming down, up, down, up, down. We could do this for hours. Up until about a week ago, he was great at going down the stairs backwards. But recently, since he's so good at walking and wants to be like the grownups, he thinks he can walk down the stairs. So I have to constantly be there.

But he is also continuously testing his independence. I feel like at this moment, we are doing really well together with him testing boundaries and me either letting him do something, or telling him no. I am very careful with what I say "no" to, because if I say "no", I can't back down or else he won't respect what I say. For example, he is not allowed to pick the rocks out of the indoor plants and throw them indoors. He has tried several times, but each time, I have to either say no or redirect him to something else. I also try not to make a big deal out of it so he doesn't get a ton of attention for doing something wrong. I usually give him a very serious look, and he smiles at me (to see if I'll smile back and laugh, which to him would mean what he's doing is okay) I don't smile or laugh, and so he moves on. I doubt this will work in a couple of months, but it works great right now! He also learned to open the front gate to the street. That was a battle of constantly telling him it was dangerous and absolutely he could not do it again, serious face, not raising my voice, and he eventually got the message that it wasn't worth fighting over because he wasn't going to win. But I'm stubborn, so maybe this is easier for a stubborn person to out-stubborn the baby.

Loves camping in his baby tent

Last week was our 9th wedding anniversary. Johan and I have a tradition that every year one of us is in charge of planning the day, and it's a surprise from the other person. We've had some pretty great anniversaries so far:

Year 1 (Johan): Rags to Riches Theme - We camped in southeastern Sweden, went kayaking, stayed in a bed and breakfast, rode horses, then last day we stayed in an old castle, played crochet on the lawn, and ate at the restaurant by the castle pond.
Year 2 (Tina): Went golfing for the first time in Sweden, which started us on a golfing craze of playing every weekend.
Year 3: (Johan): Gypsy Kings concert, I might have cried I was so happy
Year 4: (Tina): Went to Estancia Spa in La Jolla, went to dinner at the Coronado Hotel
Year 5: (Johan): Universal Studios
Year 6: (Tina): Palm Springs
Year 7: (Johan): Stayed in a cabin up in Mineral King, hiked, watched deer walk by our window
Year 8: (Tina): Played golf at Tecolote Canyon Golf Course in San Diego
Year 9: (Johan): Camping and surfing at San Elijo State Beach

Me and B taking a break from backpacking Dinkey Lakes

I was pretty excited about our anniversary this year. We camped for one night at a campsite overlooking the Pacific. We both got to surf before sunset and just after sunrise. It was short, but totally unplanned and very unstressful. We took no food or drinks, we just bought burritos and bought a six pack of beer and a jug of water, brought two chairs and our tent. Oh, and Axel! If you know me well, you know that I do not like to plan. I like to do things simply and I don't like traveling with lots of items. A couple of years ago we went backpacking overnight with our friends Brittney and Garrett Keller (pre-kids), and I was responsible for packing the backpacks. For our food, I packed tortillas and two cans of chili beans. The Kellers, on the other hand, had brought good wine, somehow refrigerated meat, and ingredients for a gourmet dinner. Johan was so mad that all he got was chili beans while the Kellers were camping in style. They ended up sharing their food with us, but that's how I am, I don't like stress and I like to live simply. So this camping trip to San Elijo was my style, and I was very, very happy.