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| Not a care in the world |
We have amazing neighbors. We are friends with our neighbors on all three sides of us (across the street and both sides). Johan mentioned to me the other day that we should have an established ongoing date night. We never did it before because babysitters are expensive! But recently, our neighbor, Suzanne, offered to babysit in exchange for dog sitting and open access to our fridge and cupboards while we're gone. Awesome!! The first time we went out was for the Tallest Man On Earth concert. She told us when we got home that Axel had woken up, so she went into his room. She couldn't find the light, so she brought him out into the living room. She proceeded to check if he needed a diaper change, but was completely dumbfounded by how his cloth diaper worked. In her defense, it is a little tricky the first couple of times you figure it out. So she left it on, and then decided that maybe Axel would like a Popsicle? Of course, what baby wouldn't want sugar at 9:30 at night? They chatted a little, then she took him back to his room, laid him in his crib, and he rolled over and passed out. I guess I should have told her before we left that all you need to do is rock him a little, and he'll go right back to sleep. Oh well, we decided that at least Axel will probably enjoy the nights when auntie Suzanne babysits. She babysat again last night and when we got back she said he slept great. She said she went in to check on him and that he slept "like a baby who doesn't have bills to pay".
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| La Jolla Shores morning with Daddy |
I am definitely more exhausted these days. I always knew Axel would be a mover, and he has definitely exceeded those expectations. He sleeps great, two naps per day, and 12 hours at night, but as soon as he's awake, it is go, go, go, until it's time to crash for the next nap. I have found myself needing naps as well, so I've been sleeping while he sleeps and will just try to clean, cook, and prepare the grocery lists towards the end of his naps, or while he's awake and tearing through the house. His favorite things to do are to sit on Leia, play ball with Leia, tipping over Leia's water bowl, and climbing up on any surface, the higher the better.
He is very sweet though. He does throw the occasional tantrum when he doesn't get what he wants, but his mannerisms are so cute. If you're eating a treat that he wants, he'll come up and ask for some. After you give it to him, he'll smile and say "tack, tack tack". At least, we think he's saying "tack", which means thanks in Swedish. He loves to laugh and dance. Whenever you play music or sing for him, he'll spin in circles and throw his hands up in the air. It's pretty funny. He has also started trying to jump. He'll bend down really low and then bounce up with his hands to try and get as high as possible. However, he is too scared to let his feet get off the ground, so it's not really a jump. That's pretty funny to watch as well. He also said a new word the other day. I asked him a question and he responded "Que?" Which means, "what?" in Spanish. His most used word is "mas", which means "more" in Spanish, and mamma when he's sad. |
| The Claw |
Last Monday, we went surfing with our surf mom meetup and kids. I am still surfing in just my bathing suit because I swear, ever since having a baby, I feel like my body temperature has been up permanently 10 degrees. I'm always hot. After surfing, we were playing with the other kids and I was talking to one of the other moms. I saw Axel walking toward the bonfire pit and told him to get away from it. He gave me that sheepish look that he always does when he knows I don't like what he's doing, and he turned and started walking away. All of a sudden, he turned back, walked straight toward it and before I could grab him, he had gone head first into the pit. Luckily, I caught him just as his hands were touching ground. As I pulled him out, I saw he was covered in black charcoal on his hand and forehead, and had scraped his belly cause he wasn't wearing a shirt. I brushed him off and took him to the showers and rinsed him with cool water. He was crying a lot, so I decided to take him home. On the drive home, I realized he was burned because he just doesn't usually cry that way. When we got home, of course, I couldn't find my cell phone, so I rushed over to Suzanne's house and called Johan from her phone. We weren't sure if we should go to the hospital, so I called my friend, Natalie, who is a doctor. I sent her pictures of the wounds and she said that he should be okay, that we could take him in to manage the pain if he seems like he's still in pain. Johan came home, we gave Axel ibuprofen, and Johan managed to get him to Calm down and go down for a nap. When Axel woke up 2 hours later, he was as happy as could be, jumping, and crawling all over everything like normal. I ended up taking him to the doctor the next day, and we came back with "the claw", a bandaged hand with antibiotic ointment. Now, 5 days later, he's doing great and the claw is healing really nice.
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| Surf buddies |
But after that incident, you can't really help but feel like the worst parent in the world. It did help me feel better when other people told me that they had burn accidents as children, and the doctor told me that it is really common that kids get burned in those fire pits. And Johan and I had a talk about how careful we should be with Axel. But then we realized that he has accidents no matter how careful we try to be, and things happen that you can't even imagine. For example, I was closing the car door when Axel ran up to it and tried to get in, so his arm got bruised. And he fell face first in the bathtub when Johan was bathing him, and I think he falls down almost every day. I guess this is the life of raising a boy. I remember also all the accidents we had as kids and am amazed we all survived. Anyways, we are going to try to be careful, but also realize some accidents are hard to prevent. Now it's the weekend and time to have fun outside! Safe fun, I hope.
