Belgium, Week 1

Wow, it took me about 3 days just to figure out how to write an entry, since I'm using an ipad, which doesn't have a normal browser for this website, and every option for this website is all of a sudden in Dutch! I just happened to push the right button and got it right!

We arrived in Belgium on Friday evening, February 1st. The flight was good and bad. Good because Johan's company paid for him to fly business class, so he got to sip champagne and eat a 3 course dinner, while Axel got the seat next to me that was originally reserved for Johan. I didn't care, I was just happy that I didn't have a 30 pound toddler on my lap for 9 hours. Axel slept awful, only 2 hours. Luckily, as soon as he woke up, I asked Johan to take him, so I got to go sleep in Johan's business class seat! Johan woke me up 4 hours later exhausted, so I took Axel, and got him to sit in his seat and watch movies until we landed.

We are living in Turnhout, which is about an hour northeast of Brussels. It's a pretty standard looking European town. It has about 40,000 inhabitants, so not big, not small. We live on one of the main streets. We have a small market right across the street that sells vegetables, milk, and basic necessities. Next door to the market is a bakery where we buy our bread. And a couple stores down is the butcher, where we buy our meats. It's pretty quaint to have to go to three stores for all our food needs. The owner of the market already knows us, and is so nice. She gives Axel free fruit and little things to play with, and gives us free samples of things she makes for the store, like her crab spread.

All the food is so good. And the beer and chocolate absolutely deserve the good reputation. I never realized how fruits and vegetables are in the mainstream American grocery stores lack that home grown taste. We made dinner the other night and just baked carrots, potatoes, green beans, Brussel sprouts, and chicken, and it was like we had grown everything ourselves. The milk tastes much different, more creamy, and the bread is delicious. You buy a loaf at the store and they slice it right there for you. Axel loves the cheese here too.

We have been so jet lagged. We have been going to bed at a normal hour, but then Axel will wake up at around 1:00, and none of us can got to sleep for several hours. The first night, we were up until 4:30, and all woke up at 10:00! and that was because we forced ourselves to wake up. This has never happened to us, usually it's so easy to come to Europe. Our theory is the lack of sunlight, because we haven't been to Europe during the winter for about 6 years, we aren't used to no sunlight. But it's getting better and better with each day. Axel is finally taking good naps during the day, and going to bed at a decent hour. He is going through a super clingy phase though. So he doesn't want to go to bed alone. I usually have to lay next to him for a bit before he goes to bed, and when he wakes up in the middle of the night all he wants is to be held, and will absolutely not let you put him back in bed alone. I just decided to comfort him for a bit, but then leave. He cries for a couple of minutes, then falls asleep. We tried so many other options, with no success, so we're trying this for now. Hopefully
the night wakings stop soon.

Yesterday was Johan's first day at work. He works about 5 minutes away by bus. He really likes it. Axel and I walked to a daycare across the street and asked if we could join. There isn't a lot to do here during the days, so I asked if Axel could join and I could volunteer there. We'll see if they contact us and allows to come. I also am going to join a gym that's a couple buildings down from us.

Tuesday, Feb 5: Today is Tuesday, and it snowed! Only for a bit, then the sun came out and melted the snow. We went to a meetup that the daycare recommended for us. It's free, and indoors. They had tons of toys, and there were several Belgian moms with kids Axels age. They were really nice. I met a mom whose name I can't spell. She was born here, but has Morroccan parents. She had a son Axels age. After the class, she walked with me and showed me where they have an indoor playground. We said we'd see each other at the class again on Thursday.

Wednesday, Feb 6: Axel finally slept through the night!! We decided that if he woke up, we would not go in to get him. When he woke up at 11 pm, he cried for a couple of minutes, then fell back asleep and didn't wake up until 8:30 am. Today Axel and I went exploring in the morning. I saw a road leading out of town the other day, so we followed it and found a huge forest with trails! I was just thanking God, because I was starting to get stressed out over the lack of outdoor places to play here. We are just not accustomed to staying indoors.

I went to try out a gym last night, it's a block from our apartment. I got a free one day pass and took a step aerobics class. I talked to the instructor beforehand so she knew I spoke English. Every now and then during the class she'd yell out the next exercise instructions in English for me. I was laughing at how embarrassing that was, but also because it was so nice of her.

So far, the Belgian people have been so friendly to us. There is a bar/restaurant downstairs from our apartment, and the owner gave us some delicious beer. We told him we were having trouble taking money out with our credit cards and he said "don't worry, just come here and I will loan you cash"! What an offer. We ended up being able to take out money, but that was very generous.

20 Months. Crazy Town.

I'm still scratching my head at the people who told me that going down to one nap would be a really great thing. So far, I'm not really seeing the benefits. This is how a typical day goes for us:

Waiting for his breakfast

7:00 wake up
7:10, Axel sits in his high chair and chants "grot, grot, grot" until we serve him his oatmeal.
7:30 - 8:30, Crazy town. Meaning, we play trains, legos, jump, bounce, destroy the house, whatever we can until we're bored being indoors.
8:30 We go out in the yard and ride his cars and bike.

Loves the helicopter at the zoo

9:00 Axel's bored with the yard, and I am scratching my head, wondering what we should do for the next 2 1/2 hours until he takes his nap.
9:00-11:30, Since this is the time the rest of the world is out and about (while we have been ready for at least 2 hours), we sometimes go to the park, zoo, meet friends for playdates.
11:30-1:30, Nap. This is the unfair part. He used to nap at least 4 hours per day. Since we went down to one nap, it's around 2 hours, sometimes 1 1/2 hours. That is so unfair!
1:30-5:00, Crazy town. Play, go to the park, run errands, basically moving, skipping, hopping, being active anywhere and everywhere and not stopping for a single minute.
5:00, Dinner. At least he is a good eater.
5:30, bath. He loves his bath time. He has a routine too. He runs to the bath when I say it's bath time, we take off his clothes, then he runs away wanting us to catch him. He and Johan sometimes play this for 20 minutes.
6:00 Bedtime

I do realize that while I am complaining that the naps are not long enough, he sleeps at least 12 hours per night, if not longer. It's just that I'm not yet willing to risk putting him down later with the hopes that he'll nap longer. I enjoy having a quiet house at 6:00 pm!

Dad and Axel at Mission Bay

Other than those complaints, life is really fun. It is amazing that watching a child grow really never gets old because there is something new they learn to do almost every single day. He is starting to really get good at his balance bike. He is starting to push and lift his feet up. It's an amazing idea to teach kids to ride a bike. He will never need to use training wheels, he'll just switch over to a regular bike when he's ready.

On the balance bike

I also feel like he really understands us. We can ask him to do something and he does it, understand our instructions. He has started using words more regularly, like mama, agua, grot, and woof woof (for the dog). He can point out his body parts when we say the name, and he can imitate some animal sounds like lion, dog, and cat, when we say their names. He also is understanding how to communicate what he wants with us. He doesn't say a lot of words yet, but he will pull us to where he wants us to go, point, drag objects to us, whatever it takes! He doesn't give up on getting what he wants, that's for sure.

We have also entered the pushing phase. Just today, we went to a local toddler music class, and we had to leave because he was pushing every kid that looked at him. I could even tell when he was going to do it. The funny thing is, that I will tell him that what his did was not nice, and ask him to give the kid a hug or a kiss to say I'm sorry, and he'll do it willingly. The same thing with taking objects. He'll walk up to a kid, take his toy out of his hand. I'll tell him that's not nice and to give it back, and he will. So I feel like it's not that he's mad and pushing, or he enjoys stealing and really wants their toy (I don't think, at least), but maybe it's more that he is learning that he has the power to do these things and is testing what he is allowed to do and what is not allowed? I do love the fact that he loves to give kisses, though. We have started teaching him to kiss goodnight and goodbye, and it's really cute. It just kind of freaks some kids out when he goes for a kiss on the mouth!

Biking around Mission Bay

Turnhout, Belgium

In recent events, Johan was asked to run a project at his company's office in Beerse, Belgium, but we would be staying in nearby city, Turnhout. We decided that we didn't want the family to be separated for too long, so we are all going together for 8 weeks! At first I didn't want to go. I was a bit pessimistic as to what there would be to do with a toddler in northern Europe in February. I imagined gloomy, wet, cold weather, and staying indoors. But then I realized that I just needed to change my attitude. So I recently researched some indoor playgrounds, a city park, and other kid friendly activities in the city. I also think we'll try to bring a couple of indoor activities in case we can't go outside. But I have to admit, we are not good at staying indoors. I don't think we have done that since Axel was 3 weeks old. We go outside and walk or play every single day. That's normal, right? :)

So this will definitely be a new experience for us. But we have traveled quite a bit, and we are pretty adaptable to different cultures, so I'm looking forward to these next couple of months. Now I just need to learn how to say "where's the bathroom?" in Dutch.

Thanksgiving Time, and Lots to be Thankful For

Playing at Grandma and Grandpa's

I finally got my computer back! I wasn't able to make any updates without it. I'm also going to start working a little more from home, which I'm excited about. Engineering work, that is. When I'm home with Axel and working a little at nights, I feel like this is what I was meant to do, be at home full time but also work a little. I'm so thankful for that! I also started tutoring. I have two university students that I tutor once a week in math and physics. One reason I know that this was a good decision for me is because I enjoy doing all their homework ahead of time on my own before we meet. I know, NERD.

Trying not to spill the wine

Eating peanuts with Daddy and Uncle Philipp

We are officially on one nap now. I fought it for a while because it was tough on all of us. Axel was tired and grumpy and Johan and I were tired and grumpy. Two weeks ago I hurt my foot and couldn't walk, so Johan had to stay home and take care of us. That first day of Johan being home was when Axel decided he didn't want to sleep anymore in the afternoon. So that was pretty tough on Johan. But we got through that week, then we went to my parents house for Thanksgiving, and it seems like he's gotten the hang of only having one nap per day. We pushed it back so he sleeps at around 11:00, and he even started sleeping longer. Now he sleeps for around 3 hours. Another nice thing is that he goes to bed around 6-6:30 and sleeps in until 7:00 now. Funny, pre-kids, 7:00 was still so, so early!

Class of '97 Reunion: Matt, Mendee, Rieke, and Me

With his Great-Grandma Marina

We spent four days in Visalia for Thanksgiving. It was nice to see the family, of course, but it was a treat to see Rieke and Philipp who stayed at mom and dad's for a couple of days. Rieke was our German foreign exchange student in high school, and we've stayed close ever since. Before they left back to San Francisco (where Philipp lives), we had a chance to have a get-together with some high school friends and their kids at a park. We joked that it was pretty much our 15-year high school reunion, since we never had a real one.

There's nothing like playing in the trash cupboard.

 Every day that I'm home with Axel right now feels more and more like the right decision. I am so thankful that I get to see him growing and get to know his personality and how it's changing and developing. He is starting to say more and more words every day, and is learning body gestures like putting his hands up when he asks a question, and he'll pull you in the direction that he wants you to go. It's so amazing to see these small changes.

Right now, the most exciting thing he could do would be to play in a real car. All day every day he begs to be let in the car. He likes to honk the horn, push all the buttons, steer the wheel, and jump up and down on the seats. It's heaven to him. The main thing we are learning is how important it is to respect other people, mainly other kids and their toys. But we try to be examples of sharing for him. I try to remind myself to not just take things from him, but ask and give him something in exchange. I figure learning to share probably should start at home! It's funny, but he will totally respect the space and toys of older kids, but if he sees a toddler about his same age or a younger baby, he will try to take their toys, and has even started pushing and hoarding his own toys so they won't take them. It's incredible how fast this changed!

Last month, he had his 18 month appointment. He weighed 30 pounds (95th percentile), and was 33 inches tall (75th percentile). His head was still in the 99% percentile. The doctor said that although his height wasn't 90th percentile now, he should have a growth spurt sometime soon. I measured him 2 weeks later, and he had grown 1/2 inch! So she was right.

Loves Grandpa's old 1940 Ford

Eating pork tenderoin, potatoes, avocado, and white pepper sauce...so fancy

I am also thankful that he is a great eater. Some of his favorite meals I've made lately that are healthy, and have meat and vegetables are shepherds pie, Swedish oven pancake (with turkey bacon and brussel sprouts, and a meat/spinach/pasta bake. Some of his favorite snacks are raw tofu, cheerios, and my banana/spinach smoothie. Johan's mom also gave me a really good book of family/baby meal recipes. What a great idea! People need to make more of these. I'm going to try and go through and make everything in it, once recipe per day maybe? Thanks, Grandma! Although, the downfall to having a good eater is that he is always eating everywhere and making a mess everywhere he goes. When we're outside he'll eat fruit off the neighbors' trees and have orange juice dribbling down his chin and all over his clothes. Inside he'll walk up to you and beg for some of your bread, shove the whole thing in his mouth, then run away with crumbs falling out. He loves going to Costco for the free food samples, and he'll eat the entire time we're there shopping. I try to be diligent about making him eat at his high chair, but I also have to relax about things sometimes or else I'd go crazy.

Sometimes, mid-day baths are necessary, and getting out of the bath is impossible.

I feel like a lot of our lives now is picking our battles. What do we allow him to do and what do we say "no" to? We pretty much go by the philosophy that if he's not harming himself or anyone else, and he's not being mean, I let him do it. Sometimes that means he's going to be rolling around in the mud and smearing it all over his tricycle. It might make me cringe at the messiness, but what kid wouldn't love to do that?

One and a Half Years Old, And Totally Crazy

Funny how I was saying in the last entry how nice one nap was, because after a couple of days of Axel only napping two hours total, I realized, I wasn't ready! I needed more down time! Plus, he was tired really early, and was going to bed at 5:30, so I put him back on a two nap schedule.



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".

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.

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.

Chiquito Travieso

That's what my mom called him the other day when he was tearing up her house. It means little boy troublemaker. I thought it was funny because I'd been calling him the same thing.

I often debate in my head whether or not life feels easier or harder now that Axel is 16 months old and becoming a toddler. The easy part is that he can walk by himself to the car, get in by himself, carry his own sippy cup, eat by himself, and still sleeps really well. But the easy part with babies was that they don't move, they nurse so there's no food or snacks to pack, and you are free to sit on a blanket or go for a walk with a friend and have a nice conversation or cup of coffee. At our mom group meetups there are two groups, the groups with babies and the group with toddlers. The moms with young babies get to sit and talk and gaze at their perfect babies, while the rest of us hope to get a minute or two to talk while we make sure our kid doesn't try to throw sand or jump off of the jungle gym.

He is getting to be pretty crazy. He figured out how to open our front gate (we have a white picket fence). We pondered the idea of building a higher, better fence, which would cost us several thousand dollars. we ended up buying some small gate safety latches for $1.50 each instead, and they've worked out just fine! I think I've mentioned it before that much of our time is spent trying to find ways to outsmart the baby. As soon as he realized he couldn't open the gate, he started climbing it. Great.


Watching the flamingos at the zoo

He is completely infatuted with all things with engines: Buses, cars, trucks, garbage trucks, vans, airplanes, helicopters. If it makes noise and moves, he will let you know by pointing at it and grunting "da". He can almost say bus. He says "das". He will point and grunt during our entire morning walk. Many times I have no idea what he's pointing at because he can't talk, but he is amazingly good at spotting a garbage truck from up to 50 yards away.

Just this week he went down to one nap. He was fighting his afternoon nap, so we figured it was time. I was dreading going to one nap because I really cherished my two breaks each day. But my friend, Brittney, told me that it was actually so much better to have one nap. So we pushed his morning nap later and it actually has been really nice! He sleeps for about 3 hours, so I have one long, nice break instead of two shorter ones. And it's been so hot lately, that I do appreciate being inside during the hottest hours.


Eating his chicken drumstick

Yesterday we went to the zoo for the first time in months. This was the first time it felt like he really understood that there were animals around. I think he could have watched the flamingos for an hour. He was so excited at everything. I let him out of the stroller and he ran around pointing at everything saying "da!". We really need to work on our words. But it was really fun to see him having such a great time. That is probably the best thing about this age compared to the baby days....that look of excitement in their eyes and their laugh when they think something is funny just makes your day.

I think he is his absolute happiest when he is with Johan. He is definitely a daddy's boy. When Johan walks in the door Axel gets the hugest smile and will run up to him and hug him. Then they laugh and play until he falls asleep.

Last weekend we went to see The Tallest Man on Earth at the North Park Birch Theatre. We got a babysitter and walked with our friend, Stephanie, through North Park to the Theatre. We stopped for sushi first and just laughed at what an awful, stressful day it had been, but thank God it was ending like this. When we got to the theatre we walked in and my mouth just dropped. It was such a beautiful, old, restored theatre. Bright colors and mouldings, it was incredible. And Tallest Man was probably one of the best performers I've ever seen. He was amazing, and to be a one man band and have music that good is so rare. We left feeling so grateful to live in our neighborhood, and as we were walking home we both said "I'm so glad we decided not to move!"

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.