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!!!