Two?!

Axel will be TWO YEARS OLD next week!
Here he is just this morning...
Lovin' on his trains...Percy is his favorite.
I have a feeling Thomas the Train might be visiting our house in form of a cake and presents on this special day. This boy is a train addict! He plays with trains most of the day. If we get in the car, he'll carry as many as his two little hands and arms can handle. And, he must take at least three of them to bed every night.

The other day, I heard this...
"Where are you choo-choos?" "Where are you Percy?" "Oh, I love you Percy." "I love my choo-choos."

Yes, his vocabulary has exploded...
"Where are you Mommy?!" "Daddy build choo-choo track?" "What?" "Mommy, Daddy, Ducas (Lucas), Axel."

A few other things about our almost two year old...

He loves vegetables! He'll eat them raw or cooked. His favorites are carrots, celery, red peppers, cucumbers, romaine lettuce stems, broccoli, corn-on-the-cob and fennel. Who new? Axel is my salad thief and I love it. Yesterday, while Lucas and Daddy went skiing, Axel and I had a huge plate of veggies and hummus for lunch (picnic style) in our living room.

Lucas Skiing - video 1
Lucas skiing - video 2

He also loves nuts of all types...pistachios and almonds being his favorites.

He will not eat eggs, fish, sweet potato or cheese by its self. On a pizza?! That boy will eat anything, even cheese which he thinks he doesn't like. He LOVES pizza and could careless about what the toppings are. If there's pizza, he's in.

Axel is my cuddle bug for sure. He loves to be held and snuggle which we adore. However, sometimes he wants to cuddle early in the morning and he'll scream "MOMMY!" at the top of his lungs over and over until I come get him. Then, his next request are "Choo-choos?!" so we dig under his blankets to find his choo-choos so he can bring them to our bed to cuddle. It's a really fun process at 4am or whatever time he wakes up.

Luckily, before bed every night he says, "Love you Mommy, Thank You Mommy."

Lucas is his favorite person and boy does he learn quickly from him. Axel watches every move Lucas makes and does not want to miss a thing. He got sad the other night because Lucas had homework and he wanted homework too. :)

His new fun game is tackling Lucas because he gets such a wonderful respond from him. It's like a grab bag, you never know what kind of mood Lucas will be in when he springs his attack. The outcome is always exciting as you can imagine.

He loves counting and repeating the alphabet. He can basically count from 1-10 by himself with a little help at four. He gets so excited. I think his ABC's will be memorized soon too.

Jumping is a favorite thing too. He's learning that jumping off of things isn't always the best idea if no one is there to catch you. He practices on our little trampoline.

Axel is a tough kid for sure. He won't take no for an answer and is really good at ignoring us when we are telling him not to do something or trying to distract him. I know he hears us, he just chooses not to respond. Stinker! :)

We sure love you Axel with your wild and crazy ways. You make us smile everyday and bring so much joy into our house. It will be interesting to see where 2 takes us?! We are excited to be celebrating your birthday soon.

A smile maker for you day courtesy of Axel Adventure Anderson!
Big hugs and lots of love,
-Mommy, Daddy & Big Brother Lucas