Happy Times

I was hoping to write this on Monday, but unfortunately, woke up with a mild head cold on Sunday that turned into a big cold that knocked me off my feet for a few days. 

 Phoenix has mastered rolling from her stomach onto her back over the past week. She has also started scooting a little on her stomach. I am amazed that she is tucking her knees up under her belly and then pushing forward. Once she gets her arms/upper body involved she will be doing the military crawl in no time.

 This past weekend we had the luxury of celebrating my grandparents 60th wedding anniversary. We were bummed that it was short, but are glad that we had a few hours to visit with some of the family. Hopefully, next time we all get together it will be for longer, so that we have an opportunity to visit with all of the family members attending :)

Here are a few photos I managed to get when we first arrived. Grandma Sonia and Grandpa Bruce with Phoenix.

 Auntie Shannon, 7 months pregnant, with Uncle Ryan.

 My Aunt Robin with her grand-daughter Sophie. Both looking awfully cute!

 The great grand children playing with Lego's.

 And the beautiful couple, great Grandma and Grandpa Burgess, that we were there celebrating with. It is hard to believe they have been married 60 years. They both seem very young to me, both mentally and physically. Working in a field where I am around people of all ages, all of the time, they are extremely with it compared to people 10-30 years their junior. I hope that is a good sign for the rest of us Burgesses. Hopefully, we will be both physically and mentally healthy and alert as these two wonderful people are.

I just wanted to take a quick moment to thank great Grandma and Grandpa Burgess for being a wonderful example of what marriage should be like. As Grandpa told me, marriage is a lot of work and that is what makes a good marriage. If you love the other person enough to constantly work at it, and both individuals are on board, then you will have a good marriage. Well, these two individuals have shown love, respect, patience, and honesty to each other and all of their children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. I feel extremely honored to be apart of this family. Thank you for always thinking of all of us and loving each of us as individuals!

 Speaking of great-grandchildren, here are 8 of the 10.

 Here is our extension of the family.

 On our way home from the anniversary celebration we had a mild set back. Axel got extremely sick and threw up everywhere. It made for an interesting last hour in the car as I was squished between the two kids, in the back seat, holding a blanket full of vomit with a child covered in it nodding in and out of sleep. We managed to get Axel bathed and to bed by 11 and the car seat and car cleaned as well. Unfortunately, right when I was headed for bed Phoenix woke to eat. When I finally got into bed at 12:45 am Axel woke screaming he was itchy. We weren't able to get Axel comfortable and asleep until about 2 am so when the morning came and I woke with a cold I wasn't surprised. The sleep deprivation had finally caught up with me. Luckily, we had a relaxing Mother's Day. Keith and Axel picked flowers and made flower arrangements for me. I also got 30 minutes of cuddle time with Keith on the couch, while Axel played with his new Lego set and Phoenix took her morning nap. It feels like we haven't done that in years, just to sit together and talk. Maybe we should thank the Lego company for keeping our child entertained enough that he allowed us to talk to each other in his presence :) It was the perfect Mother's Day treat!

Phoenix gave me a small arrangement

and Axel gave me a bigger one with a card he made at school.

 Here is a shot of both of my cuties!

As far as other news Axel is officially off of all corn, rice, wheat, peanuts, sesame seeds, walnuts and soy. It was a hard week for him getting use to and trying new foods. He ate quinoa without too much of a fight, but he was not a fan of millet at all. Luckily, my first bread that was made of sorghum flour, millet flour, potato and tapioca starch was a big hit. He ate a piece with his fish for dinner last night and another with his eggs this morning. He seems to be doing better with less incidents of his face becoming flush during meals. 

 We are getting the carpet and couch steam cleaned right now so that Axel can have his play room back. They guarantee removal of all bacteria/dog dander/allergens. I also have an air purifier on the way. We are going to see how the small unit helps him in his room at night and if it makes a big difference we are considering installing a whole house air purifier. Taking an antihistamine twice a day is also helping a bit. Our goal is to eliminate as many external factors that our contributing to his itchiness so that the only itchiness that is left is from his ichthyosis. Slowly but surely we are tackling all possible contributing factors. 

In Phoenix news, she continues to do well with the transition to neocate. She is up to 3 oz of neocate to 1 oz of breastmilk. Unfortunately, she is still eating half her calories at night. Hopefully, this improves so that the night wakings disappear over the next month or two. Considering how frequently Axel woke I really can't complain with Phoenix. She really only wakes twice a night. Last night was 11:30pm and 4:30am. If I didn't have to get up at 2 am to put aquaphor on Axel it would have been a pretty good night of sleep. It is just hard to not get one full 4 hour sleep cycle. I am still hopeful this will improve over the next couple of weeks as my maternity leave quickly comes to an end.