.five months.

1.25.2017

Five months.

Axel can roll from his front to his back and from his back to his front. He doesn't do either often because he still hates to be on his tummy.

He loves to suck on his toes. They are currently his favorite "toy." We can almost always distract him with his toes and socks!

He has his moments where he is pretty good at sitting up by himself-even without supporting his weight on his hands sometimes. It's kind of hit and miss these days, though. He just gets so excited and wants to be standing, so it's kind of hard to get him to bend at the waist sometimes.

He loves to play in his exersaucer and he really LOVES his jumper! He is so good at jumping and can get his feet like three inches off the ground sometimes!

His ribs and thighs are ticklish. He usually laughs when I tickle his thighs. When I tickle his ribs he just makes a little squealy sound...almost like it takes his breath away.

He loves to give me kisses! He will grab a chunk of my cheek or neck and pull himself to me with a wide, open mouth, slobbery kiss. I love it...even though I feel like he should have a chunk of my skin in his hand when he is done. He has a very good grip!

He knows his name and will sometimes turn to look at me when I address him.

He thinks his sisters are hilarious! He loves watching the girls run around and play. He laughs mostly at them...and mostly at Alya as she loves to interact with him. Lyla is too busy in her own world most of the time!

He likes to play peek-a-boo and he loves to look at himself in the mirror. It's Dad's favorite distraction technique!

Axel loves the tub! He has figured out how to splash when he's laying in his sling by getting his feet over the edge and kicking. He likes to sit in his sling, too and look at the design, and of course he likes to slap the water to make a splash!

Some days he takes great naps! Mostly we get at least 45 minutes to an hour out of him, but some days he will sleep for almost 2 hours. He is taking three naps these days.

He has also started eating solids pretty consistently. He eats his oatmeal cereal and we have also given him applesauce and pears...and whipped cream.* I think the whipped cream is his favorite!.

One of my favorite things that Axel does right now, is he will stick the tip of his tongue out and curl it around his lip...so just the tip is sticking straight up out of the side of his mouth. It's so cute...and lately when he does that he has been making a little slurping noise and it's so funny!

He also likes to sleep with his blanket over his face. Axel was given a soft minky-like blanket when he was born. We both love it! And it's obviously his favorite because no other blanket on his face works like this soft blanket works. It makes me so nervous that he sleeps with a blanket over his face (we are working on just having it touch his cheeks rather than cover his whole face) but he loves it!

*Side note, because I just think this is too cute:

I usually mix strawberry powder of chocolate syrup in the girls' milk. We keep the chocolate syrup in the door next to Matthew's can of whipped cream. He likes to spray the whipped cream straight into his and the girls' mouths, but we have never really told them the name of this substance. Anyway...one day Lyla asked me if she could have some white chocolate. It took me a minute but I figured out that she was talking about the whipped cream. I may just have to refer to whipped cream as whipped white chocolate from now on!

{1.16.17 - 1.22.17}

This boy is my favorite boy! He loves to stick his tongue out! 

Rub-a-dub-dub, three babies in the tub. The girls were scared that Axel was going to pee! 

Daddy's scouting buddies! These girls love their binoculars and any opportunity they get to use them! 

In December I turned 30. Eek! Matthew's sisters put together a paint night for me to celebrate! It was so much fun! I think I might have to turn 30 again next year!

{1.9.17 - 1.15.17}

Alya and Lyla. My beautiful little girls! 

As much as this scares me, I also think it's so cute that he likes to sleep with his soft (no other blanket is good enough for this job) blanket on his face. We've been working on having it just touch his cheek, instead of letting him cover his whole face! 

Naked baby tummy time! // He is getting better at sitting up by himself, and of course, he still loves to see himself in the mirror. 

Even though these are blurry, they are adorable! This boy sure loves his sisters, and they sure love their brother! They are starting to interact more with each other! Alya has even been including him in their play lately! "Come on Little Man!" and he's been assigned characters in their play. When the girls are Princess Twilight, he gets to be Spike the baby dragon! 

Axel had his four month doctor's appointment this week. He is doing great and we have permission to start him on solids whenever we feel like it! He is 15.7 lbs and 26.5 inches long.

Bunny Lyla // Axel holding on to his favorite portable source of entertainment. He LOVES his toes!

We've been having some fun with SnapChat lately! Axel // Bunny Alya.

{1.2.17 - 1.8.17}

We tried giving Axel some oatmeal for the first time. He was very unsure about what he was supposed to be doing, but he thought it was pretty cool!

It's been hard for me to get the kids and myself bundled up and outside to play in the snow, but we managed it, finally! The girls had a lot of fun climbing the snow hill that's been piled up in front of our house! 

I was excited that Alya was willing to throw some snow for me as I attempted a fun picture... 

Obviously one of Axel's favorite things to do is look at himself in the mirror!

{12.26.16 - 1.1.17}

I love it when these two get along! This coloring book has been a source of much contention on occasion because it's really hard to share, but when they work things out and work together on their own, without any prompting from their dad or me, it's wonderful! 

The kids in their Christmas jammies. Christmas Eve was a bit of a nightmare at our house for a few reasons that I won't get into. All I will say is that I was SO sad the kids didn't get to open their jammies on Christmas Eve! But when they were finally able to wear them, we had to take a picture! Even though Lyla wasn't really feeling it. 

This boy loves his toes these days! 

.four months.

12.25.2016

Axel is four months old.

He has had another growth spurt. I know, not only because he has actually taken a few good naps, but it's like I lay him down for a nap weighing 12 pounds, and he wakes up and he's all of a sudden 14 pounds. He actually weighs 15.7 pounds and is 26.5 inches long (as of 1.9.2016).

It's hard for him to concentrate on eating, especially when his sisters come into my room while he's eating, or if he catches a glimpse of my phone.
He gets surprised easily. It doesn't take much to almost scare him, but he usually thinks it's a little funny! 

He has rolled from his front to his back multiple times now. I have not been awesome about doing tummy time with him, but it seems like he is still getting the hang of things! He's really good at holding his head up with his arms almost straight. He wants to GO so badly! He lays on his tummy and swims, trying so hard to reach the things he wants. He has been able to spin himself so he can get to the things on the side of him!

He has rolled from his back to his front, but it helped that he was half swaddled one time and then he was on my bed the next time.

He has a great laugh, but so far he's been really inconsistent about when he'll let us hear it. What works one minute doesn't work the next. He usually will laugh at his sisters while they are playing, though.

He has found his toes and LOVES to try to get them in his mouth. If he's not playing with his toes he is eating his fingers and drooling all over everyone and everything.

He's really good at aiming and grabbing his toys.

He's found a new noise. Yelling. He just yells at Matthew and I. He's not necessarily mad or sad, he's just exploring this new sound. I hope it's a phase that passes quickly.

Axel had his first sickness this month. Just before Christmas he was diagnosed with croup. Poor thing!! And through it all, he's still so happy!

He still takes 30-45 minute naps, so after Christmas I think we are going to start sleep training. Wish us luck!

{12.19.16 - 12.25.16}

All smiles all the time.

Axel has found his toes and he can't get enough of them! 

All these two wanted was sparkly chapstick from Santa. He did not disappoint and I think they liked all the other stuff he brought as well! 

I love when the girls want to pose for pictures. I just wish you could see their faces a little better.  

Merry Christmas! 

The girls loved their new dress-up clothes from Nana! I think they wore these dresses for about a week straight!

{12.12.16 - 12.18.16}

I don't think anybody can make this boy laugh like his sisters can! (Lyla & Axel) 

The girls got these ear muffs for Christmas last year, and lately they have become an obsession for my little hoarder. Lyla keeps these with her at all times...she even sleeps with them. Not on, mind you! She just wants to hold them. It was fun when we got our first real snow fall of the winter for her to use them for their real purpose! 

I had a minor surgery this week, so my mom came down to help with the kids and she brought with her some fun gingerbread houses! 

The girls had a lot of fun decorating them, and they did such a good job! 

They especially liked to eat the frosting. 

Axel is trying out some new toys! He actually loves this, despite how it looks in the photo.

{12.5.16 - 12.11.16}

Honestly, most days, I feel like I am not very good at this mom stuff...my girls spend WAY too much time watching TV and not enough time outside or even just inside without the TV on. But sometimes, we have moments like this, where they play so cute together! Tucking each other into their "beds" and singing lullabies while they cuddle. Or times when they run up and down the hall pretending to be the "pittiest sairy" (prettiest fairy) or unicorns or Anna and Elsa, or Jake and Izzy from Jake and the Neverland Pirates. Those times are good times!  

I kind of wish that some of their pretend play consisted of something other than characters from their favorite TV shows...)

Mr. Axel is figuring out his balance! #pleasefreezetimeforaminute 

He is such a happy baby!! Even though he still only naps for 30 minutes at a time!  

So on our way home from Salt Lake one night, I decided to stop in Provo to see Santa. The girls knew exactly what they wanted for Christmas this year (sparkly chapstick) so I thought they would be so excited to ask him for it. On our way there, the girls both fell asleep in the truck. I debated on just letting them sleep and continuing our drive home, but I was worried that they would be so disappointed that we didn't stop...so I woke them up! They cried and cried. The whole time. I didn't realize it was an outdoor Christmas village thing, and we didn't have coats...just jackets and blankets. So they were cold and tired and ornery. I kept threatening to leave and not see Santa and Lyla said, "otay!" which was not the reaction I expected! Haha! They refused to even go near Santa - who was not a very good Santa (but maybe I was just frazzled...) and they cried some more. It was a terrible experience! 

At least I got a picture of Axel with Santa! 

We later had a chance to see Santa at our Walmart. Alya was still too shy to have her picture taken with him, unfortunately.

Ultimately, I have decided that next year (and probably every year after that) we will be sending letters to the North Pole!