Unexpected Visitor

My mom called us on Sunday to say she would be in Denver two days--due to a mishap with her flight back from PA after Popop's funeral. I picked her up at the airport on Sunday evening and she left today (Tuesday). What a wonderful unexpected visit! It was a lot of fun to have her and great to have her see the kids. Luka has changed a lot in the (almost) 8 months since Axel was born and, of course, Axel has changed immensely since she saw him last as a newborn. Both boys had fun with her here. We will miss her!

We will all miss our Popop. Laura and I had both ordered flowers at the same flower shop for the funeral and they called her back because we had spelled "Popop" differently, and they wanted to confirm. I have always spelled it that way, as a kid, all through college and into adulthood, when I wrote to my grandparents. I guess I was the wrong one--everyone else spelled it "Pop pop" (and as I recall, so did Dearma when she signed their letters). I guess he didn't mind, but that was a shock. Well, we never said it "Pop pop" but did pronounce it "popop," so I guess I took it too literally. Anyway, we will all miss him and our other grandparents who had gone before.

Post Script: Thanks to Steven for reminding me about the related Dear Mac and Poppy story. When Dad died, our grandparents, whom we called Dearma and Popop (see above regarding Popop!), sent us flowers. Our local florist signed it for them "Dear Mac and Poppy". We all thought that was hilarious. Probably due to some much needed stress release as well.

Axel says Da-da

Darn, I was trying to get him to say ma-ma first a few weeks ago. ;) Then, I kind of forgot about it, and today when we went to see Uncle Jack with Mom, Axel happily said "Da da da da da" as he looked out at us smiling from his car seat on the floor. The little stinker! No, really--good job, Axel! This was actually the first "word-like" sound that he has done. He makes a lot of cute sounds, but more like chirps and clicks. So, a very interesting "first."

He is also doing well now at trying to grab things. We had a bunch of finger puppets for him to play with at Uncle Jacks and he was batting on the side of table to get to them and really going at it.

His hair is lighter and lighter. He may even end up being blond! His hair is much lighter than Luka's but they both have the same dark brown eyes with long eyelashes.

Uncle Jack, a dentist, thinks his gums look like he will be getting teeth soon. He is almost 8 months, so he may be right. And, he is does have a special expertise in that area.

Another Axel First

Today, Axel waved at me for the first time. I was drying my hair at the master bath sink, and he was propped up on my bed so he could see me. With my free hand, I was waving at him off and on. He looked intently at me, and then raised his right hand tentatively and then moved his fingers slowly. Very cute. He was very intent on copying me.

Baby Sunscreen

In Colorado, we wear sunscreen all year 'round: it is sunny in winter too! No matter where you live, carefully choose your baby's sunscreen. I found this article (Baby Center Sunscreen article)
on how to choose it, and my friend Sanya used the advice in it and found Banana Boat Baby Tear Free that fits the criteria.

Axel Firsts

Today was a day of several "firsts" for Axel:

• He turned the page by himself on a board book. Reynald was reading (or that would be, translating to French) "Spot looks at colors" to Luka and Axel and Axel turned several pages on his own!
• First time Axel sat up on his own at home for an "extended" period of time (meaning more than a second!). He was sitting on our bed and doing an awesome job of staying up. Then, he'd do a "dive" over when he got tired, but he is getting there! The very first time he stayed up for an extended period of time was on Wedensday, at music class. He was positioned just right, leaning just so on his left arm, that he stayed that way for several minutes.
• Today for a nap at 4 p.m. was the first time he slept in his crib! (Well, he work up and cried about 5 minutes later, but we could say that was a nap--or should have been.) Yes, it took us this long to get it set up again after tearing it down when Luka went to his mattress on the floor a few months before Axel was born. So, Axel beat Luka's record of 4 or so months in the bassinet. He turned 7 months old 5 days ago. But, now, we are officially done with the bassinet and have folded and put it away. The crib seems so "big boy" comapred! And, it is much roomier for him and easier to lift him out of for us. :)

Go, Axel!

Luka Stories

Poor Luka! He has a bad cough and a fever. He keeps waking up at night and crying. Also, he has not figured out how to blow his nose yet, so that does not help with congestion. He just wipes it all the time, but can't get it really cleared out. Also, this a.m., he had a nose bleed when he woke up and it was everywhere on his new dinosaur sheets. I got out the blood, but it was a lot of work. Poor man!

Funny story: we sometimes play "Halloween" where he knocks on a door and says "trick or treat" and we play like I give him a lot of candy, like it is Halloween. He has not done that in a while and yesterday, he knocked on the door and said, "Christmas Tree!" He got influenced with Christmas happening recently, I guess. Then, he looked confused when I was confused and remembered it was "Trick or Treat". Funny.

Luka Language Observations

Since Luka was pretty little (just 2 or earlier?) he got that there were two languages and would specify which language he was talking about--even though when he was younger, he sometimes called French "anglais" and Enlgish "français" - mixing them up. Now, he never mixes the labels up. Now, at 3-1/2, he knows that the same words are even pronounced differently if you are speaking one or the other languages. For example, "Spiderman" in English and "Speeder-mahn" in French. If you say, "Spiderman" while speaking French, he will correct you. Another example is "Axel" in English and "Ax-elle" in French. I called Axel "Ax-elle" in English and Luka corrected me: "Mommy, it is 'Axel.'" In addition, today, he tried to say "Robin" (as in Batman's sidekick) with a French accent on his own--he and I had never even talked about Robin before. He pronounced it "Roe-bin" as opposed to "Roe-bain," since he does not know formal rules for French pronunciation, but I thought it was very interesting that he is adapting to these conventions on his own!

Spiderman!

If you need help fighting bad guys or climbing any walls, let us know and we will dispatch Spidey out to help you. He has an entire team at your disposal, since, according to him, Spidergirl, Spiderbaby, Big Spiderman, Batboy, Batman, Batbaby and other various super heros live at our address as well.

Save the world, Spiderman!

Spiderman
(aka Luka)