Sibling Fun

Written on Monday, Sept 2nd

This past week went by especially fast as my three days of work ended with me picking up Grandma Susan from the Amtrak station in San Jose at 9pm on Wednesday night. On Thursday, I had promised Auntie Shannon, that I would head up to Oakland to get her set up with the breast pump I loaned her. I thought it would be a bit much for all four of us to head north so Grandma and Axel stayed home while Phoenix and I went to Oakland. I am a bit bummed I didn't get any pictures of baby Braylin, but good thing is both Braylin and Shannon are doing well.

Grandma had a great time visiting with Axel and Phoenix. She was even able to feed Phoenix. Phoenix started back on solids on Monday. She kept down sweet potatoes Monday through Wednesday so I added butternut squash and carrots back into her diet on Thursday and Friday. She still isn't eating as much as she used to, but good thing is she is mostly keeping it down. I am hoping in the coming week she will be back on track so she will start sleeping almost through the night. She has been waking up a couple times a night, which is rough on me with Axel waking up once a night. Axel slept through the night last night, for the first time in weeks, so I am hoping he gets back on track. Axel had almost slept 10 days in a row through the night until a couple of weeks ago when we had the special blue moon. It was such a spectacular sight that I thought it was worth waking him. It was only 8:50pm when I woke him. He was back in bed by 9pm, after seeing it, but unfortunately, that ruined him for almost two weeks with one to two wakings a night, until last night.

Last Sunday I was able to climb up Montebello. It was absolutely gorgeous at the top. It was so breath taking that I had to stop and take a picture. For those of you who know me well, I never stop to smell the roses because I always feel time crunched to get a thousand things done every day. This is why I love to ride my bike....time alone in God's amazing creation!

Since Phoenix has started crawling I decided to get little plastic containers to store all of Axel's little legos. He absolutely loves organization.

Since Phoenix started crawling a week ago she decided that she wasn't quite satisfied with just crawling. She has been trying to figure out how to get to standing.

We try to get outside to play at night still. Sometimes we are able to play with one of the neighbors, but most nights now it is Keith, Axel and I. Axel's new thing to do outside, that he learned from the new neighbors who moved into Max's house, is how to flip over while holding onto my hands. I tried to teach him this a few months ago, but after seeing Caitlyn and Ethan do it, he did it right away. Grandma joined us for one of our outside night adventures while she was here. She had fun watching Axel and I try to do some gymnastic moves.

Here Grandma Susan is feeding Phoenix. She was so excited to be able to feed Phoenix. Good thing Phoenix ate!

Written Saturday Sept 7th.
I have been slowly getting some of Axel's toys down. One that was an absolute hit was his push wagon. Although Phoenix doesn't know how to push it yet, brother decided that it would be an awesome game to push Phoenix. This is great for two reasons. One, Phoenix is relatively safe in the wagon and I don't have to worry about her falling while trying to stand and cruise and Axel is entertained. This allowed me to get dinner started the other night. They had fun and I got something done!

Last Sunday Keith and Axel were playing on going to the Lego Convention. Unfortunately, there was mis communication between Keith and I and tickets were not purchased and the event ending up being sold out. Instead, Axel and Keith went to Axel's first ever movie at the movie theater. They went to see Airplanes. Axel did great for the most part. He was a bit afraid during the storm and they left 10 minutes before the movie ended, but all in all, they both had a great time. 

Phoenix is absolutely my child and never wants to sit still. Over the past week Phoenix has mastered crawling, going from her stomach to sitting and pulling herself up to standing.

She has also started to let brother know when she wants her space and to continue to play with what she is playing. I was excited to get her first push on film :)

The new toy of the week that she has been playing at both Angela's and our house it the activity box.

She mostly likes to play with it standing. Here she is cruising around to the other side.

Yesterday, Axel and I got his tent and tunnel down. It only took her a minute to see Axel go through before she tried herself. She absolutely loved it!

Phoenix had more immunizations on Thursday to get her caught up. She refused solids all day yesterday until she saw me eat a banana. She recently reacted to cooked peaches. Absolutely discouraged I decided not to follow the allergen list and to just give her a quarter of my banana. She loved it! I am going to try again to day and hopefully she will not react. We are hoping for the best!

Tomorrow I am training a new babysitter who is older and has more experience. We are excited because we are hoping she works out. She has committed to watching the kids every Saturday from 8:30-11:30am until next summer! This is going to allow us to have a lot more family time together and Keith and I will have three hours of date time per week! Check out the next blog with Phoenix videos.