Mammen Moments

Halloween!

2011-11-01T14:30:00.000-07:00

We had a fun Halloween this year with Trunk-or-treat, a visit to Mr. Bones pumpkin patch, and trick or treating in our neighborhood. We also hosted a little halloween party with friends before the kids went out trick-or-treating together. So much candy!

Axel's Preschool Graduation

2011-06-28T13:15:00.000-07:00

Looking to the future.....

All lined up and ready to go!

All the gratuates.

Axel's graduation "glamour shot."

We love Ms. Claude!

Big brother and proud little sisters.

I didn't cry nearly as much as last year's graduation ceremony-when he wasn't even graduating!

Proud papa

Afterward Axel's choice for dinner--In n' Out Burger!

And for dessert--Diddy Riese cookies-yum!

New House, Disneyland, Strawberry picking etc.

2011-06-03T20:50:00.000-07:00

We went strawberry picking for Memorial day at our favorite farm.
Eleanor is happy with a tummy full of strawberries.

Disneyland days are coming to an end with Axel going to school in the fall, sadly. We got a few more days in before summer starts. fun!

Just give Eleanor food and she is happy.

New house from the back. A "before" shot. We are enjoying our new place!

Axel loves to climb this tree in the front yard.

kids on the front porch.

October--Halloween!

2010-11-02T21:29:00.000-07:00

We had a major peach picking/canning blitz early in the month. Yum!

Eleanor the hotdog. Baby's first halloween!

Axel as Luke, of course.

Eating soup at the ward trunk or treat.

Lindsey visited us in October--so fun. We took a great hike by the beach on Saturday.

Took the kids to a pumpkin patch.

The hayride was a real hit!

My friend Melissa has a great camera and was kind enough to snap some shots of the kids in costumes. Thanks Melissa! As you can see, we are all about Star Wars these days.

August-September

2010-09-17T12:45:00.000-07:00

We had so much fun going to Utah in July for my mom's wedding. It was great to see everyone and go to some fun family events.

All the sisters riding the tram at Snowbird.

My mom with all her grandkids

We got to be there for Elsa's first birthday. So much fun!

Back in California, we went to the beach forLabor Day weekend. The kids never get tired of the beach. Lulu is a crazy woman in the waves

Eleanor eating sand, of course.

Axel doing his exercises? Not sure.

All of us at the Mission in San Juan Capistrano.

Axel turned 5 last week! He got a new bike and lots of Star Wars stuff that he has been playing with non-stop. I think Lulu was more excited than him about the gifts.

We had a big birthday party, garden themed. Crazy, but fun. Here are the boys playing Star Wars, of course.

Before the party, all nice and decorated. Wish I had an after picture.

Desert

2010-06-17T15:41:00.000-07:00

OK. So it has been almost a year since my last post. I'm not going to try and catch up. Just start where we are.....so here goes.

Memorial Day weekend we went to the desert. We stayed outside Joshua Tree National Park, and drove in for day hikes. It is an amazing place. Last time we were there--two years ago Lulu was just a baby and Axel a toddler. Time really flies!

My favorite quotes from the trip were:

"You're a pirate!" --Lulu, to every tatooed or dew-rag wearing hiker. Embarassing but funny.
"Lulu, don't ever go down there" --Axel to Lulu regarding the pit in the pit toilets. Sound advice Axel.

relaxing in the pool after a hot day in the desert.

Eleanor sucking that thumb, as usual

resting in the shade

Latest reflections from Axel

2009-09-20T21:25:00.000-07:00

"Mommy, do people go on a rocket ship to make sure space is going okay?"

"Mommy, this croissant is crunchy, like a goat's beard and a flamingo."

Summer Vacation

2009-09-15T17:18:00.000-07:00

We spent most of August on vacation with family. First stop Mammen family reunion in Yellowstone and Jackson Hole, then a week in Park City and finally Salt Lake. So much fun, and great to reconnect with loved ones. The kids really got to know all their cousins, grandparents, aunts and uncles better. It felt like a nice long break from our day to day in Los Angeles, great to be in the mountains and away from the city life.

On our drive to Utah we stopped at a historic fort in Southern Utah where they happened to be having a poineer festival. It was a great welcome, and good to stretch the legs.

Getting cleaned up after the long drive.

Lunch on Main Street in Park City before the drive to Yellowstone.

At the cabin in Yellowstone--Sleepingbags for all the kiddos. They were so excited!

Of course we hit all the highlights at Yellowstone in including Old Faithful, who was faithful as ever.

Axel loved the stinky mud pots.

So beautuful!

Swimming at the firehole in Yellowstone.

We had a fantastic time at the chuckwagon dinner in Jackson Hole.

Lulu takes the reins!

We stopped at Jenny's Lake for an afternoon on the way from Yellowstone to Jackson Hole.

Axel vs. nature. The best picture of the trip.

Back in Park City, mountain man Taylor emerges.

Their first trip down the Alpine Slide.

We spent an afternoon at 'This is the Place'.

Back in SLC with my family, nothing beats foil dinners over the campfire.

My mom threw a birthday party for all the grandkids, it was a pretty big hit.

Fun times with Grandpa Roger!

We spent a wonderful afternoon at the county fair with my mom and her family.

We love aunties!

Back in LA now. Lulu hits the beach. The summer vacation is over, but so many great memories were made!

Catching up--big time.

2009-05-17T21:06:00.000-07:00

Ok, so I kindof fell off the blogging wagon. Sorry. Wish I could say there was a really good reason why, but there isn't. I just fell off and the longer time went on, the harder it was to get back on. But I am back and promise to try to stay. Honestly not that much has happened in the past few months. We had Christmas in Utah, which was great. Axel went skiing for the first time. We spent lots of time with family, opened gifts, etc.

In Februray Taylor had to spend a week in Utah for work, so we went along and had some good times with family, including the picture below with Lauren and Axel jamming on the piano.

While there, we got to see Lauren try on her wedding dress (she is already married!!) which was really fun. It was great to see her in her pre-bridal state. Eventually I'll catch up and get to posting pictures from the May 2nd wedding-which was beautiful!

We spent a fun day in Park City, and checked out the skii museam.

In the past few months Lulu has developed some serious sass. She is very precocious and not shy at ALL. She says "Hi!" to everyone we see all the time. Very cute. She has also recently learned to use screaming as a tool of manipulation. Not as cute. Although not yet 2, she acts very much like a 2 year old. She is quite a talker and likes to say things like, "alwright!" "I did it!" and "Oh no, wha happen?" and my favorite, "hewwo."

We haven't seen a whole lot of Taylor in the past few months (because of--can you guess?--work), so I cherish those evenings when he is actually home before the kids are in bed, as shown below.

Axel and Lulu are becoming better friends, and foes. Although they fight a lot, there are moments when they really play together and have a lot of fun. Today when I turned on the computer and Axel saw the picture of Lulu on the screen he said, "Oh, there's Lulu. I just love Lulu." It was so sweet. I will have to rememberhe said that then next time he womps her over the head.

I had a couple of visitors in March. My mom came to visit, and help me, while Taylor was in Hawaii for a week. It was really good timing because I ended up having pnemonia and strep throat while she was there and I probably wouldn't have even gone to the doctor if she hadn't made me. She took really good care of us and honestly I would have been in bad shape without her there that week.

My good friend Renee came to LA for a wedding and we got to see her! Love that Renee. So fun to see her and catch up. Miss you!

We had a wonderful Easter. This kids went to a couple of Easter egg hunts, we colored eggs, Easter Bunny came, and of course, church and a big meal prepared by Taylor. Lulu loved her sunglasses from Grandma Kay.

The Easter egg hunt at the Spector's was a real hit. Axel found most of the eggs, and Lulu spent most of her time getting a ride the the car below.

Last month we spent a Saturday at Travel Town, Axel's favorite place on earth, and rode the train for the millionth time. Those trains just never get old for him.

Can't you just see the joy in his face?

He can't get enough.

Taylor helped him try out the kite he got for Easter. Pretty fun.

October: Marathon, Hawaii, Halloween

2008-11-09T18:52:00.000-08:00

Looking back on the month of October, I realize that it really has been great. Lots of very memorable experiences. First, I ran my first marathon in St. George. It was a really amazing experience. My sister Reghan and I crossed the finish line together after 4hrs 29 minutes. My dad finished after us, and poor Lauren had to take the bus back after serious stomach ailments kept her from finishing. I really never hit the wall and felt pretty good in spite of the pouring, freezing rain and blowing wind the entire race. We were not expecting that, so it was definitely something to contend with both physically and mentally, I felt that I was just running to get out of the rain as soon as possible.

It was an incredible thing to complete my goal, finish the race, and to share the experience with loved ones. I really felt that I had overcome a lot just to get to the race day whole. Most notably; an injury a couple of weeks before the race that kept me from being able to run, a viris the week before the race, and my entire body breaking out in a terrible rash the night before the race, which kept me up with worry for most of the night so I got very little sleep. I don't know if another marathon is in my near future, but in spite of all that I did have a great experience and would love to do another one!

The runners,after the race. You probably can't tell how completely soaked we are.

The whole gang. It was such a thrill to see everyone after the race because I had looked forward to it for what seemed an agonzingly long time.

Sisters, sisters.
Dad and the girls at Brock's parents house after the race. It was wonderful to spend some down time with the family after the race.

Taylor and I also went to Hawaii in October. Taylor was there for work and I was able to join him for a long weekend while Taylor's parents watched the kids--thanks Bill and Kay! We stayed on Oahu on the North Shore and the Turtle Bay resort which was so beautiful. Turtle bay is named well because it does have a beautiful natural bay with sea turtles. We did actually swim with the turtles which was rather surreal. The picture below is a secluded beach we walked to from the hotel.

On Sturday unfortunately it rained all day, but we decided to go ahead with our plans to hike to a waterfall. It turned into quite an adventure as the river we had to cross continued to swell with the rain. We had to wade through waist deep fast flowing water at several points, and were completely covered in mud by the end. We felt like adventurers marching through the jungle, and although it may have been more pleasant on a sunny day, it would not have been as memorable.

Sunday we went to church and visited the beautiful Temple.

Don't you love all the pictures we have where Taylor is holding the camera in front of us?Someday I will have to do a blog of all the pictures we have of us like that. For some reason, they seem to turn out best.

Some kind soul finally offered to take a picture for us.

Sunday night we stayed in Ko Olina. It was also lovely, I especially loved our room which had a huge balcony and amazing view of the ocean. Here we are at the resort enjoing one last evening in paradise before shipping back to reality.

The balcony and view.

Switching gears again, Halloween, my favorite holiday. Although I have to say that one of the main reasons I love Halloween is because it is in the fall, and I love fall. But in LA, there is no fall. Every day is exactly the same, 80 and sunny. I'm not complaining, I love it, really, but the holidays just have a different feeling about them. It was actually really hot that day and the kids were all sweating in their costumes. But they sure looked cute anyway. I took the kids to a little community halloween festival, which was lots of fun.

Lulu the new walker took to the streets in her pumpkin costume. It was nice for her to have some extra padding for all of those falls.

Axel fell asleep in the car on the way to the festival and woke up quite cranky in spite of being Thomas the Tank Engine. His mood is reflected well in this picture.

The big jumping house really helped to thaw him out. Nothing better that jumping around in a big house with other dinosaurs, fairies and tigers.

Poor little pumpkin keeps falling down.

That night we went to the ward trunk-or-treat where Axel got to fill his Thomas candy bucket, which, incidentally, he has eaten every last piece of in the last two days while working the potty-training system. He has figured out how to go potty on demand for candy about 30x a day, it has worked out pretty well for him so far, but I am coming up with a new system that hopefully will preserve both the incentive to go potty and his oral health.

Daddy and pumpkin.

Back at home we tried to get a good picture me me with the kids, and honestly after several tries, this really was the best one.

Axel's 3rd Birthday Extravaganza

2008-09-09T14:50:00.000-07:00

Yesterday Axel turned 3 years old! I Can't believe I have a 3 year old. The baby days are officially gone. On to childhood full steam ahead. I'm not sure I am ready for this...

For Axel's party we rented out an old dining car at Travel Town (a place in Griffith Park where old trains are parked for kids to play on). This was an obvious choice since Axel loves Travel Town and all things train. It was a Thomas-themed event, of course, because two years later Axel is still really into Thomas. The party had a lot to live up to since Axel has been very much anticipating this day for several months, which in a 3 year old's life is the equivalent of several years. At first he seemed very nonchalant about the whole thing but once his friends started showing up and he realized this was the real deal he was pretty darn excited.

The birthday boy......taking it all in.

Interesting.....

The kids always love watermelon!

Very excited about something here....

The whole gang...

We took all the kids on a train ride, which was a big hit. There were tantrums when it was over. When Taylor bought the tickets he let them know it was for a birthday so as the train was starting off the conductor announced that it was Axel's birthday. He was so embarassed his face turned bright red! So cute.

Enjoying the train ride.

Lulu had a pretty good time too. Her favorite part of the party was playing with Bilbo, our friend's little dog. She is such a dog lover, it is so funny. She goes nuts and starts waving her arms and laughing whenver she sees a dog.

As Axel likes to tell everyone, "it's a diesel engine!"

The train conductor....doesn't he just look like the perfect conductor?

And finally, blowing out the candles. We certainly set the expectations way too high after this birthday party, but oh well, you only turn three once. By the end of it all we were exhausted, and I was particulary suffering from birthday fatigue, since I had been preparing for it all week. But it was worth it to see that smile!

Louisa Turns One!

2008-08-14T13:52:00.000-07:00

Louisa actually turned one while we were still on vacation, so we celebrated when we got back. She didn't seem to mind. She was pretty fascinated with the whole event, especially blowing out the candle. Axel, of course, was excited about it too, since he is really into birthdays these days. It seems that he believes we arbitrarily assign birthdays to any day, and can't understand why we haven't decided that it is his special dayyet. The other day he looked at me very sadly and said, "mommy, where my birthday?"

Is she more excited about the wrapping paper or the present?

I was probably more excited about the dress than her, but who is a one year old birthday party really for?

She loved eating the cake. We have discovered that Louisa has a real sweet tooth! I can't wait to teach her about chocolate.

Axel finally got a big boy bed! He was so excited about it, he actually wanted to go to sleep the first few days. It took a week or so for Axel and Lulu to get used to sleeping in the same room, but they are pretty good about it now. They have learned that they just have to go to sleep, no matter what the other one is doing. Axel likes to take on the big brother role and we often hear him yelling, "Lulu go to sleep!"

Still Catching up: Our First Family Vacation

2008-08-03T20:18:00.000-07:00

For our first official family vacation we rented a beach house in Northern California near Mendicino for about a week. We really had a wonderful time, although not as relaxing as Taylor had hoped, it was certainly memorable. The drive up along the coast was really amazing. When we got to the beach house it was in tiny town, very remote area, and took in some of the most amazing landscape anywhere.

One of our favorite things we did was ride the Skunk Train out of Ft. Bragg. It was about a 3 hour trip through the most beautiful redwood forest. At the stopping point we all got out and had BBQ before heading back. It was a really great way to experience the redwoods riding in an open car-the smell was amazing! Axel, of course, loved every minute and still talks about it all the time.

We spent some time at the beach, although cooler than Southern California, it was still an adventure with all the driftwood, sand crabs, sea weed, and tide pools. Lulu the beach baby loved crawling around in the sand.

We found some incredible places to hike along the coast.

Hiking in a Redwood forest was lots of fun, until Axel got too restless in the backpack and we let him get out and walk. I think a snail would beat his pace, soooo distracted by every little thing!

One of our favorite things about the beach house was the small pack of wild donkeys that lived in the field behind the house. They would come right up to the fence in the evenings, they were very tame and fun to watch. We saw quite a bit of wildlife around the house, deer, rabbits, a skunk, and a herd of sheep with big curved horns.

We also had a fun day visiting the very quaint town of Mendicino. The next few pictures were taken while exploring the bluffs at the edge of town.

Off-roading in the stroller!

The beach was beautiful, cold and stormy.

We took 3 days driving back and visited family along the way. First we stayed with Taylor's Aunt and Uncle Kim and Carl outside San Francisco, then we visited his Grandma Pat, and finally Kirt and Renee in San Louis Obispo. It was really great to see everyone!

Catch-up part 2: Trip to Utah

2008-07-30T17:27:00.001-07:00

We had so much fun taking care of Greta, in Utah, while Somer and Brock went to China. Between Lindsey, Lauren, my mom and Reghan, there were always extra hands around to help. Greta was such an angel, I really couldn't believe that she was just smiling and happy all the time, she went to sleep when she was tired, and ate all her food at mealtimes! Made my kids look like monsters. We also loved having aunt Reghan in town from New York.

Axel loved having a back yard to play in at my mom's house. He also had a super fun time at his two day sleep over at Caca and Honey's. It took a couple of days for him to recover from so much fun!

Lulu and Greta tooled around the house together-these two are going to be trouble together someday-I can see it coming.

When we left Utah for home, so did my mom, Lindsey, Lauren and Reghan, only they drove. We met up the next day and spent the rest of the week doing fun LA things. We went to the Grove, the Getty Center, toured cool neighborhoods, swam, and had a great time. Being the out-of -towner, it means so much to have family visit, so thanks for coming!

Catch up-part 1

2008-07-29T21:41:00.000-07:00

I have a lot of catching up to do. The past few months have been so busy-but with lots of good times.

A few weeks ago when I took Louisa downstairs for her nap I left Axel, the world's slowest eater, upstairs to finish his lunch. It seemed awfully quiet up there as I was coming up the stairs. Axel, who didn't seem particularly tired that day, had actually fallen asleep while eating his lunch! I went over to get the camera and right after these pictures were taken he slid off of his chair and hit the floor before I could catch him. Drowsy and confused he looked up at me and opened his mouth and it was then I realized it was full of apple-he had actually fallen asleep mid-chew! Poor kid. Guess he was really tired.

April and Axel (mostly)

2008-05-01T16:15:00.000-07:00

I have been meaning for some time to write about all the funny things Axel says. It is hard to keep up because he says funny things all day long. I love that Axel is able to communicate well enough now that I can know what he is thinking pretty much all the time. He really is his own little man these days--and he lets me know it!

Here are some classic Axel-isms:

-Axel often puts a "T" on the end of random words like "come on-t." He says come on-t a lot, I'm sure it has nothing to do with me telling him to "come on!" all the time.

-Axel is always listening for sounds and saying "what noise mommy?" with his hand over his ear. He gets especially excited if it is a garbage truck so he can run over to the window watch it.

-I just love the way says pig (cig) and the noise it makes (noink, noink)!

-Axel also loves to talk about his emotions. The other day at the grocery store we were walking down the aisle and he said, "I so sad mommy, I so sad." Later in the car he told me he "I so happy mommy, I so happy!" He also often tells me he is "so excited!"

-He is very proud of his accomplishments and often comes running up to me saying "I did it mommy, I did it!"

-Axel LOVES to sing. He sings all the time, and when we are driving in the car he wants me to sing constantly. As soon as we finish a song its, "what next song mommy, what next song?" Some of his favorite songs are Book of Mormon Stories, ABC's, and the Snow, Snow, Snow song from Thomas's Ultimate Christmas DVD.

-Axel has made up some of his own phrases. Instead of saying "Oh, there it is" he just says "oh les!"

Axel is really into puzzles these days. I recently discovered that he is much better at puzzles that I realized, so I bought him a 50 piece jigsaw puzzle just to see if he could to it-he can.

Axel's gym class has been a source of joy in his little life the past few months. He gets to ride on the parachute "choo choo train."

Climb to the top of the bars.

Jump on the trampoline.

Swing on the rings.

Play in the foam "cheese."

And at the end he gets a sticker! What more could a little boy ask for?

Axel and Lulu have been enjoying the fun of having another kid in the bath recently. I love seeing Lulu laugh hysterically at Axel making the duck fall off the shelf. He actually wants to take baths just so he can "make Lulu laugh mommy, make Lulu laugh!"

Lulu is quite the splasher.

She does occasionally get her own fun, not just watching Axel. But Axel is sure to get "his turn" whatever it is.

This is the April part.....So our favorite new place to hike is Malibut State Creek Park. It is amazingly beautiful.
There is a wonderful little lake at the top. We stopped to rest and hang out by the water.

Tried to get us all looking...but that Axel.

I jsut love this picture.

Taylor got Axel a hormonica on one of his last trips.....the rest is self-explanatory.

Desert Excursion

2008-04-01T16:33:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday we decided to be brave and take the kids on a day trip out to Joshua Tree National Park. It is about 2 hours outside LA, so we left early in the morning with hopes of fun filled day in the desert. To get there you have to drive past an enormous windmill farm. When we first pointed out the windmills to Axel he was pretty excited and kept saying, "windmill," "windmill!" And then it became, "more windmill," "more windmill!" For about 45 minutes he continued to be amazed at the "more windmill" and also continued to express his amazment over and over and over again.

Things were going pretty well until we got to a very small town outside the park and tried to find some lunch. It was then we discovered that Axel had a serious case of the runs, that we only had 4 diapers for him, and that he had completely soiled his only pair of clothes. Luckily we managed to find a small JC Penny and bought the lovely outfit pictured above, which is now Axel's favorite.

We had a wonderful time hiking in the desert, everything was in bloom, which was amazing. In the above picture we are standing in front of an actual Joshua Tree ( not really a tree but a plant that looks like a tree).

Axel insisted on hiking himself and refused to get into the backpack. In spite of several falls he maintained a cheerful attitude and we were pretty impressed that he completed the mile hike on his own.

I know it looks hot in the pictures, but it was actually quite cool and windy-hence the fleece. All that hiking was just too tiring for Lulu. Luckily she has no problem falling asleep while strapped to the front of me.

You may have noticed a pattern of pictures with Taylor in trees or on top of rocks with Axel. You may have wondered how he managed to get up there with him. Just for the record, yes, I was on the ground wincing as they clamored up, and no, it was not my idea.

After our day of hiking we were all pretty ready to hit the road. We knew it was really time to go when Axel had his fourth poopy diaper and we were officially out of diapers. The poor kid had to sit in it until we could get back to civilization, which turned out to be longer than we thought. We finally came to a town that looked like it would have a place to eat. Exhausted and starving we pulled into an Applebee's parking lot when Axel started chanting App-le-bee's, App-le-bee's. It was then we remebered-we need diapers!

I am happy to report that Axel has since survived his diaper rash, sunburn, and scraped knees. Lulu has survived her sunburn as well, but we are definitely rethinking our ability to take road trips with kids. We are still learning as Grandpa Bill said, "road trips with kids are like military campaigns, you need a supply line and an exit strategy." We clearly had neither.

Easter

2008-04-01T15:12:00.000-07:00

We had a wonderful Easter this year, celebrating it with Louisa for the first time, and with Axel for the first time he could start to understand it. We tried to keep tradition with Easter baskets, coloring eggs, etc. but I'm afraid we have ruined our kids chances of believing in the Easter Bunny. Taylor I'm sure is thrilled about this, in fact, I suspect it may have been his plan all along to sabotage the Easter basket surprise.

Saturday night we colored Easter eggs, which Axel was pretty excited about. I don't think it had occured to him before that sometimes you can color on your food, and then eat it! A pretty great concept. He proved to be just as excited about the eating part as the coloring the next week when he downed four eggs in one sitting. Didn't have to worry about his protien intake that day.

After church I attempted to get some picture of the kids in their cute Easter clothes (thanks Grandma Kay!) I was surprised to actually get a few with both of them in the same picture!

Louisa is, of course, always happy to oblige with a smile.

After church I put together the Easter baskets ( I hope no kids will read this). But before I could go hide them for the kids (really just Axel) to find, somehow Axel found them in our room. Who else do you think was in the room at the time? Yes, Taylor. Somehow Axel just "happened" to find the Easter baskets while Taylor was there watching. He may have won this battle, but I'm on the offensive now when it comes to Santa!

So , sadly, the kids enjoyed their Easter candy without the magical notion that a big, big pink bunny with long front teeth, mysteriously entered our apartment and hopped around hiding baskets full of eggs.

Axel and Lulu: Budding buddies

2008-03-16T20:51:00.000-07:00

One of my favorite things about being mom these days are those rare but precious moments when Axel and Louisa truly engage each other, even if only for a short time. One of these moments occured a few weeks ago when Lulu was in her bed (still sleeping in a pack n' play because we are too chicken to move Axel to a big bed) and Axel wanted to get her toys. So he started filling her bed up with toys and then wanted to get in with her. I probably should have said no for safety reasons but I didn't want to squash his desire to play with her so I gave in. Louisa thought it was so funny that he was in there acting all crazy as Axel will do, she was laughing up a storm. So cute. I just love those moments when they seem to have an inside joke and just start laughing together. No one can make Louisa laugh better than Axel. But all this is the exception to the normal constant competition for my attention-and for the toys. Mostly Axel wants to make sure Lulu doesn't touch any toys. We have a rule that he has to get her something else to play with if he wants what she has. So he will look around for the thing he is least likely to want. The other day her got her the toy basket. Thanks Axel....you are a great sharer.

A few weeks ago we visited the tide pools at Little Corona in OC. It was a pretty successful family event, which is hard to come by. Axel really loved discovering all the new sea animals, but at one point seemed to get a little freaked out when he realized that all these crazy things we were pointing out to him (star fish, mussles, sea anemones) were all alive.

Louisa is the queen of smiling babies

2008-02-10T21:01:00.000-08:00

It is ridiculously easy to get a good picture of her. She looks up, smiles a big open mouthed smile, and stays in that adorable position for long enough even for our camera to capture the moment. This was taken at the zoo yesterday. Love that toothless grin.

And she does this all the time....."Look at me, I am a smily happy baby!"
Which is why I just can't resist taking pictures of her.

This was taken on her 6 month birthday. 6 months old! Can you believe it? She is growing up too fast.

This was taken last weekend, she was really into sticking her tongue out that day.

The after-the-bath photo. Once again, she graced us with a grin at just the right moment.

She very often smiles just like this--big open mouth. Sometimes I wonder if I do this and she is imitating me...

Along with the big smile Louisa also is into loud squeals and high-pitched screams. I love her form of communication, but her glass-shattering screams are not always appropriate in public. Especially during church. But I am not one to squash her joy, so scream away Lulu while you are still a baby and can get away with it!

2008-02-10T19:56:00.001-08:00

This is as good as a photo of Axel gets. He is facing forward, you can see what color his eyes are, and he's not moving and making the picture blurry. Yes, the best recent picture of Axel that we could find is the one where he's wearing the diaper on the outside of his pajamas.

We're not great bloggers, and part of the reason for that is that we're not good picture-takers. Neither Kayce nor Taylor particularly likes taking pictures, which we both hope is the primary grievance of our children as they grow up (because some grievances can be so much worse!). Add our tendency to be lousy picture-takers to Axel's inability to sit still for 2 seconds even when bribed and threatened and you've laid out the prime conditions for a dearth of scrapbooking and blogging in the Mammen-Sybrowsky household. So we thought we'd present some evidence of the challenges we face.

Exhibit 1. Axel was probably facing forward when the camera started the laborious process of taking a photo with a flash, but by the time it finally took the picture, he was moving on to new and better things.
Exhibit 2. Not even a kangaroo can keep his attention for long enough to sit through a 2-second picture.
Exhibit 3. Axel wanted to stick his head in the hole so badly he was on the verge of a temper tantrum as we waited our turn. But once we got there, he only had time in his schedule for one picture -- despite the fact that the one chance caught him with his eyes shut.
Exhibit 4. "Too slow, Dad!"

Exhibit 5. In the end, though, can we really compete with this bamboo railing, even when we're jumping and dancing and screaming in the background?

Exhibit 6. Someday, perhaps, we'll have a nice family photo without any upside down participants (with Taylor's Grandma Pat, at Pat Nofrey's memorial service in Aptos, CA).
Exhibit 7. Busy, busy.
Exhibit 8. "Axel, Axel, hi! Smile at the camera! Look up! Hey, hey, Axel! Thomas says 'Toot, toot!' Axel!"

Halloween!

2007-11-01T16:58:00.000-07:00

We had a very fun Halloween night, in spite of near disaster. At 6:30pm the costumes STILL had not arrived. I was very upset, but willing to press on with the back-ups (frog and skunk). Literally right before we were going to leave the UPS man buzzed. I was so excited I jumped into the elevator and scared the UPS man as he was coming out.

We took Axel and Louisa trick-or-treating in a nearby neighborhood where some friends live. He was very into the idea of getting candy, I had rehearsed the whole scenario with him several times. "First you knock, then you say trick-or treat, they give you candy, then you say thank you." I think he just heard, "they give you candy."

At first he was shy with the trick-or-treat, but then he started saying "teat" (treat) and "day doo" (thank you). We also rehearsed how to be Darth Vader. He got down the "whoooo, heeeee" somewhat, although it was more like just heavy breathing, but still people got it. It was pretty exciting for Axel to realize that you really do get to run from house to house getting candy, and I loved watching him figure out that Halloween is the coolest holiday there is. Louisa was of course a hit. Who doesn't love a three-month-old dressed as a hot dog? When we got home Taylor promptly hid the candy, which Axel had already had several pieces of. I was worried that the candy bag was going to become a major issue but he seems to have already forgotten about it. Yes! More for me. I love Halloween.

Axel's Birthday, Buddhist Wedding, Louisa happy baby

2007-10-01T21:29:00.000-07:00

Axel's Birthday

So we have had another crazy month. Axel turned two. For our Thomas the train obsessed kid, we decided to take him to this big model train store to see the trains and get him a starter train set. They had one set up in the store which he played with for about an hour. Although, I don't know if you can really call it playing because for Axel, it was very intense. He did not take his eyes of the train table for one second.

After buying his train set, which he was oblivious to, we had to leave and Axel threw a tantrum to rival all tantrums. We felt like great parents taking him to the top of the mountain and them marching him back down on his birthday. Then he noticed the train set in the bag and begged to see it, so we had to let him hold Annie and Clarabel (Thomas's coaches) in the car. Later at home, more crying as he watched us wrap up his precious trains. When he finally got to open them he became so obsessed with playing with his train set that we could not get him to eat a cupcake, and he really likes cupcakes. I think it ended up being a pretty good birthday for him, although a bit traumatic.

Since then the train set has become a bit of a curse. He really really likes someone to play with him, and when you play trains with him, they have to be moving all the time. If you stop for one second, he says "push it" over and over again until you start pushing the trains again.

Buddhist Wedding

Last weekend we drove to San Francisco to attend Taylor's cousin Sarah's wedding. She is a Zen Buddhist, and lives in a Buddhist community called Green Gulch. Her husband is a Buddhist monk, and they live in a cute little house there. They wedding was very beautiful; we really enjoyed learning more about Buddhism, and meeting the nice people at Green Gulch. A highlight was watching Axel get down with the monks in the yurt after the wedding. The monks could really get down, and so can Axel. I also found it pretty amusing when Grandma Pat told several people that I was dancing in the yurt with the monks without Taylor--I wasn't, it was just another woman wearing green--but everyone was scandalized nonetheless. Thankfully it was all straightened out when I showed up and she realized it was not me.

Louisa Happy Baby

Louisa is now two months old, and she is a sweetheart--and a talker with red hair! Never in my life did I imagine I could have a red haired child. It's too soon to know what her real hair will be, but for now it looks suspiciously reddish. When Louisa is in a good mood, which she typically is, she will look you straight in eye and tell you all sorts of things. She coo's and squeals and says, ahm over and over again. It has been amazing to watch her personality emerge. I find her very engaging for such a young thing. She really seems to have something to say.

Kayce's belated update

2007-08-19T20:58:00.000-07:00

I feel enormously ashamed that it has taken so long to update this blog. Sure we have been busy, but come on....

So the last two months have been pretty huge for us. The biggest event, of course, was Louisa's birth. It was amazing, and so fast. For any who don't know the "labor story," which all women love to hear and tell, and will continue telling for the rest of their lives, here is a quick version of mine. I was three days overdue and my very accomodating Beverly Hills OB gave me the option of induction. I didn't want to be induced but really really was ready to have the babe. After talking to Jenni and Somer I was convinced to go ahead hoping that breaking my water would do the trick and I wouln't need drugs. Boy was I right. About 30 minutes after they broke my water, I was in serious labor. About 2 1/2 hours of very hard labor later, Louisa came into the world with just three big pushes. My doctor didn't even make it to the delivery, but came in moments later.

It is such a truly amazing thing to give birth. As hard as it is-especially drug free as my experience has been-it is just awesome. Throughout my pregnanacy I looked forward to the birth itself as much as anything just because it is such an incredible experience to go through. When that baby is finally born, and you are not preganant any more, it is such an amazing feeling. Just after the birth, I remember feeling an incredible adrenaline rush, like I had just climbed a mountain and could not stop myself from talking excitedly to everyone around despite the exhaustion. Truly awewome.
I could not have done it without the critical help of others. I had two wonderful and understanding nurses to coach me through the toughest contractions, and I had the equally critical emotional support of Taylor and my sister Somer. Having them there was so important to me.

Then there is the part of meeting your baby. This little person who you have known so well by their kicks and movements for what seems like forever is finally here. You can examine every detail of their tiny body and rejoice over every little noise or movement. Louisa is truly a sweetheart, she loves to be held and cuddled. She also seems very serious and determined. She is always working at something when she is awake.

So since Louisa's birth we have been so busy with traveling to a wedding in Utah, blessing Louisa, and having my mom and two younger sisters visit us in LA. I have loved seeing so much family and being able to share this time with them. We are still adjusting to being a family of four, but life is good and we feel so blessed.

I feel bludgeoned into doing a new post. So here goes...

2007-08-19T20:21:00.000-07:00

Truly remarkably, nearly two months have gone by since our first foray into blogging. I, Taylor, take that back; actually out first attempt was a website/blog devoted to Axel nearly two years ago that died a quick death after one or two updates. But rather than simply embrace the fact that we are mere troglodytes within the space of flows, we’re going to keep this going, if only to get you all off of our backs.

Louisa Eve Mammen was rush delivered to our family on Friday, July 13, 2007, and we haven’t been the same since. She’s totally a babe of course (according to every connotation of the word), though there’s no question that we’re still getting used to the impact of having doubled the size of our family unit. At least we can still play man-to-man defense, of course; hard to imagine what happens when you’re outnumbered. I suppose that’s when you get to have first name basis with the emergency room staff at Cedars Sinai.

As I’m kind of blanking on the whole funny anecdote thing right now, I’ll just list a bunch of cute pictures, and note that we’re doing great and enormously appreciate the love and support that we feel from our family and friends. I’m also so grateful for two healthy and happy kids, and for Kayce who does a top notch job of keeping them alive. And happy. And wonderful. We are blessed!

On the Heber Creeper with choochoo-obsessed Axel:

What did I tell you? Babe. (The one on the left.)

I am a lucky man.

Taylor, Kayce and Axel's First Blog

2007-06-24T17:26:00.000-07:00

We finally enter the 21st century. I know you all thought it would never happen, but I really am going to try to be better about taking pictures and keeping in touch. This will be a major feat considering between Taylor and me, we have the world's worst track record for this stuff....so here goes!

Axel is really, really into trains right now. He wakes up every morning saying choo choo, but it sounds more like too too. He wants to watch his Thomas the Train DVD constantly! So, we took him to this place called Travel Town with real steam engines that kids can climb around in. He absolutely loved it.

Since the day Axel was born he has absolutely refused to wear anything on his head. This has been a source of frustration from time to time especially on cold winter days in Boston. A few weeks ago, on a sunny 80 degree day in LA, Axel decided that he wanted to wear his winter hat. He also wanted to wear one sandal and one tennis shoe and go out for a walk. So we did.