The past three weeks have been a whirlwind of activity. I no longer remember everything that we did, but I will do my best to back track. Axel has two of his closest friends moving in the next 5 weeks. Because of this we had Mason and his family over for dinner. Kaia, his mom and my co-worker, and I made the most delicious steak tacos while the kids played on the slip and slide. We had a great time visiting with them and were glad to spend some quality time with them before their big move. This is Mason and Carter's last week at daycare with Axel and next week is Kaia's last week at work. They are moving up to Vancouver Washington with the hopes of buying a house and establishing themselves up there. They will be greatly missed as Axel and I are losing a close friend.
During my spare time, I have been busy trying to make yummy wheat, corn, rice, soy and nut free food. Here is the big winner for noodles. These are egg noodles made entirely of egg, potato and tapioca starch.
They were easier than I thought and only took an hour with all of the resting time in between each step.
The best thing about these noodles are that they were TASTY and Axel enjoyed them.
I also make a tasty buckwheat crepe. Axel scarfed his up except for a few bites and said, "I liked it until the end. It started tasting bad." He was right that they do taste good for the most part, but the fiber, protein and heaviness of dark buckwheat gets a little overwhelming by the time you finish.
The following Friday Axel, Phoenix and I ventured out to a new park. It was sooooo packed that Axel didn't want to play. He was afraid of all of the kids. Instead we hung out and had a picnic then headed home.
Axel spent the entire week, a couple of weeks ago doing over 10 connect the dots pictures and then coloring them. Here is his first one and my favorite. I was extremely impressed by his creativeness with the rainbow fish, birds and the sun and sky he added to the picture.
I remember taking a ton of pictures of Axel in his car seat and I realized that I really didn't have very many of Phoenix in her car seat. You can see how big she looks. She still seems awfully skinny and light to me, but I can tell she continues to grow in height.
Like Axel, Phoenix loves to stand and play. I got brave here and let her stand independently to take the picture. She can easily do this except for the balance thing that she won't have for months to come.
Axel and Phoenix continue to adore each other. I thought this was a really cute picture of Axel hugging Phoenix and Phoenix hugging Axel back.
On Father's Day Keith and I went for a short ride together and then we just hung out around the house. Axel made him a poster with his hand prints on it that said "Daddy's hands are wrapped around these fingers" and he painted a couple of big rocks for paper weights. Here are Axel and daddy hanging out at the park and riding bikes together. They both love their time together.
On Monday morning at 12:13am, after Father's Day, Phoenix rolled over from her back to her stomach for the first time. I heard this very unusual cry from her room. Normally she talks when she wakes up to let me know that she is hungry so I was taken aback by the cry. When I went to check on her I found her on her stomach. I rolled her onto her back and she continued to roll onto her stomach two more times throughout the night. She couldn't roll back onto her back because her right arm is still swaddled. I tried to have both arms unswaddled, but that just ended up in her being awake for an hour. Luckily, since then she has mastered rolling back onto her back with her right arm swaddled. On Wednesday night, the 19th, we headed for Sacramento in order to spend time with Grandma Susan and get ready for Auntie's baby shower. Grandma has this really cool mini air hockey arcade game. Axel had a blast playing with it throughout our three days there.
Because it was hot in Sacramento I was able to dress Phoenix in several of her dresses. Here she is rolling over to grab Mr. Monkey in her cute little dress.
Grandma Susan and Phoenix playing.
On Saturday, the day of Auntie's shower Axel ran into Phoenix's room when she woke from her morning nap. I heard Axel yelling "help, Help". I found him stuck upside down holding himself up. After helping him upright, not more than a minute later I hear the two of them giggling. I went to check on them and found that Axel decided to just hop in and join sister in the pack n play. I love seeing them have so much fun together.
On Saturday afternoon over a dozen family members gathered to shower baby Braylin with love. Here is the happy mother to be.
And the happy couple!
Axel and Auntie being silly!
My precious Phoenix with Auntie and Grandma.
Phoenix talking to mommy!
During the baby shower, Uncle Ryan, his brother in law and nephew took Axel to Scandia. Grandpa Brian met them there. They had a ton of fun playing mini golf and games in the arcade.
After the baby shower, Ryan's mom, sister, brother in law and Grandma Susan, Auntie and I went out to dinner to celebrate Ryan's birthday. His birthday was on the 17th and because his sister and mother were there for the shower they decided to go to dinner. The kids and I joined because I wanted to wait until Phoenix's bedtime to head home. Lance and Axel had such a great time at Scandia together they wanted to sit next to each other at dinner. I was so proud of Axel. This is the first time he sat completely separate than me. He ate his dinner and hung out with Lance without a peep! I had Casey, Lance's dad, take a photo since I was all the way at the other end of a very long table.
We arrived home very late. For the first time both Axel and Phoenix slept in. Phoenix until 7:30 and Axel until 8:30am. Keith and I were very thankful since we stayed up talking until almost 2 am. Keith got home just after 1 am after having a "man day" with his close college friends. It was kind of a bachelor party without the craziness. A bike ride, good food, ping pong, pool and beers....a perfect man day for anyone :)
While we were gone for the three days besides, Keith's man day, he was busy working hard. One of his engineers was forced to quite because of poor performance. He absorbed all his projects. Just when he was about to crack from all of the stress and work, he received a call from HR that informed him he finally received his promotion!!!! After 13 years at the company he is finally a section lead, something that he should have received years ago. We are so excited and proud of him!!!!
On Sunday morning, Annika came over while Keith and I went for a short ride. In the afternoon we headed over to Max's house to attend the Bartolo's going away party. Max and his family move August 9th and they are out of town for most of July. The kids had a great time playing together. They even had a chance to play in the rain! Yes, it rained in June in California....weird!
Another quick news flash is that it looks like Phoenix's first tooth is slowly breaking through. I felt tooth ridges yesterday on her bottom right tooth. I didn't feel it as much today so I am not sure if it is going to be one of those long processes or not, but we are excited for the big event : )
I would love to say that things are slowing down, but with Keith's and my birthday, another BBQ this Sunday, a trip to Boston, and a weekend wedding in Cloverdale July is going to fly by more quickly than June. I will do my best to post before the end of the July, but no promises :) Happy Summer Times!
