Photos of Axel

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Grandma's visit and a future Bob the Builder

Grandma was here since Tuesday, and she just left this afternoon. She and Axel had the BEST time playing together. They played chase, and they stacked blocks and put shapes through their corresponding holes. She agrees he must be very smart, btw. :) He even gave her snuggles, which he normally reserves for Brillo and me. They had lots of fun together.

One thing they had fun with was Axel's tool set, a birthday present from his daddy via his mommy. ;)

Look at that concentration!

I can't believe how adept he is at using the screw driver properly!

It takes a very steady hand!

Of course, Brillo is nonplussed...as usual.

Axel is definitely his daddy's son when it comes to his interest in tools. It is obvious to his grandmother and me that he is a very smart boy, and I think these photos and videos illustrate that. He has an enormous attention span for such a young little tyke, and his hand-eye coordination is dazzling. He sat in Brillo's bed with my mom and played with his tools for at least half an hour. Amazingly enough, here you will see him actually stick the Phillips head screw driver into the bolt and turn it. You'll also see him put the bolts through the small holes with each hand. Alas, you will see him using the saw like a wild man, also not unlike his father.

Axel's First Haircut!

His long locks contributed to his "foot-loose and fancy-free" look.

I was trying to wait until Dave gets home to take Axel for his first haircut, but it was getting too out of control. His long, luscious locks were constantly in his eyes, and I didn't really like his unkempt appearance. It was cute a lot of the time, but often it just looked too long. Dave and I loved how it looked in Hawaii, with his bangs and all just long enough to look like a cute little surfer boy, so I asked Dave whether he'd mind if we cut it a bit to more closely resemble our Hawaii boy. Hair isn't a huge deal, but we were hoping that could be one "first" Dave could witness first hand.

Of course, Dave agreed, and Axel and I went with Grandma to see my stylist, Kathryn, at Armonia Skin Care in Bird Rock. I met her when she did my hair for our wedding, and I've been going to her ever since. There's nobody I'd rather have snip the virgin locks of my child than her. She did an A++ job. Oh, and she captured a sniplet [sic] of hair for his baby book, too. Take a look at the photos of our big day!

These are the photos that ultimately led to the first haircut...

My friend, Deb, thought it would be funny to put her daughter Suraya's bow in Axel's long locks.

He looks so pretty...!

He never seemed to mind the hair in his eyes.

These are photos of Axel just before his hair appointment.

Kathryn really has a way with Axel and was able to style him beautifully.

Axel was perfect during his sheering. He seemed mesmerized by the scissors and comb.

Kathryn had him sit in my lap so I could wrangle him. He sat like a little angel.

Trimming the curls in back.

Almost finished!



Here's the right side...



...and the left!
PERFECTION!

Axel and Kathryn, World's Greatest Hairstylist!

Axel

Baby steps...

Walking down the sidewalk before the weather went from cool to hot again. Nice outfit, right???

Sorry for being a blogging dud. Woops. When you get behind, it is really hard to start again. So, I'll start with a few recents [SIC]:

Tub time this evening. We just discussed it a moment ago: Daddy has agreed we can cut his hair--but not TOO much!

Playing with a "new toy" that he discovered under the bathroom sink...

So colorful!

Trying to give Daddy his favorite ball...

Here, Daddy! Take this ball!

Daddy! I can touch you!

And....We're Home.

It was really hard for us to say goodbye Tuesday night before leaving for our red eye home to San Diego. We knew we were going to miss our Kaile (and Eric and Stace), and we do. Waaa! I wish we lived closer!

Here we are on the tarmac in San Diego, following our 20-minute flight from LAX.

We had quite an uneventful flight, thank God, with Axel sleeping pretty much the entire way home! Of course, I couldn't really sleep while holding him in a sleeping position, but I did watch a terrible movie in which Queen Latifah hooks up with an older b-ball player. Soooo awful. Terrible acting, predictable plot, awful storyline.

My sweet boy on the commuter. There were empty seats, so he got to sit in his car seat and sleep. Very nice.



And here he is nodding off. He slept the whole way.

And here we are waiting for our ride, which was 20 minutes late. Thanks a lot, Terremoto. He slept all the way home to our front door. So nice.

Beach and Playground, by Bike...

Our wheels.

Today, we were without a car, so we went to Kailua Beach Park and the Lanikai playground on Eric's bicycle. Kai sat on the handlebars like she does with Daddy, and Axel was in his backpack. We had a bucket on back, and a saddlebag, both full of gear. I think people thought I was nuts, and I'm sure they thought I should have been charged with child endangerment due to our lack of helmets, but it was fun. It worked.

Sand monster!

Kailua Beach Park

First, pedaled out of Lanikai to Kailua Beach, where we swam and played in the sand for awhile. Then we all loaded up onto the bike again and went down to Kalapawai Market to eat our lunch. There, Kaile decided she wanted to go to the playground, so we pedaled back to Lanikai, to the Canoe Club's park area. The playground there is awesome, with a padded floor and, most importantly, a couple of large shade trees. Axel and Kai both had a wonderful time.

Weeeeee!!!

Axel amazed me when he sat in the swing, got one push from me, and immediately and spontaneously started pumping until he was going even higher than he did with my push! What? How the heck did he know how to do that? He leaned forward and backward, in perfect cadence with the to and fro motion. Look at the video. It'll blow your mind.

How did my 1-year-old learn how to swing? I swear, he was trying to go higher!

He amazed me a second time when he climbed onto the slide and went halfway up it with no help. Watch the video; it'll show you how he went sideways to shimmy up it. So funny. He's a natural climber, and we already knew that, but I was still floored by the slide climbing. He also kept climbing from the ground to the top of the slide, via the steps; no surprise.

Climbing the slide.

Serious contemplation on the slide.

Kai slid down the slide several times with Ax in her lap. What a good cousin!

Traffic jam...


Climbing on the climby things.

Giving Hans some love.

Axel's Party With our Hawaii Friends

This Saturday, we had a fun party with my cousin Matt and his girlfriend Kate; our friends the Go's from Alabama from when I was in 4th through 8th grades, plus Lani's son Daxton and partner Dexter; friends Allison and Fonzo; and all of us Olson's and Salisbury's.  It was a grand time.  Of course, Axel was tired and cranky and had to go to bed directly after cake, but it was fun, nonetheless.

We had salmon, smoked marlin and smoked ahi dips, artichoke cheese dip, sushi, shrimp, and all sorts of other pupus.  It was great, but I am now at least 5 lbs heavier than when I arrived here.  Dangit.

Thank you to to all our guests for a fun time, awesome birthday presents, and much merriment!

Kaile and Axel playing in an overturned ottoman before the party.

Axel and Mama Go.

From right to left:  Rod (foreground), Dex, Lani, Dax, Bette, and Axel.

Eric carries in the cake while Kate cheers in the background.

Lani and me with our boys.

Axel looks thrilled to have such a large cake.

The tired little boy is ready for bed at this point.  Note the goopy icing in the vicinity of the caterpillar.

I'm tired, so here are some photos.

We had a good day today. We opened a couple of presents, including a T-shirt, a Slinky, and a tool set that Axel just loves. Later, we went to the beach for a short while, napped, went to the neighbor's pool, napped, had dinner, and went to bed.


Playing with his new mini Slinky.

Opening a present.

Axel showed a lot of personality this evening at dinner. He and uncle, and the rest of us, were making fart noises to try to get him to join in.

More farty sounds. He's soooo funny!