A few weeks ago as I was rolling the bins onto our driveway, Axel decided to move them in order to play peek a boo with sister. He and I were both so surprised that he was big enough and strong enough that he decided he wanted to start rolling the bins back onto our driveway every Monday night. You can kind of see from this picture that I roll them up over the curb and then Axel rolls them the rest of the way. He has to concentrate pretty hard for the big yard waste bin and recycle bin,
But the small garbage bin is a piece of cake.
He often decides to run around the driveway with it as sister shreaks with joy while watching him.
It is hard to believe my little guy is such a big boy now. The past three Mondays I have been beaming with joy watching him being so proud of himself. He loves these opportunities to do grown up tasks like these.
Well, Halloween has come and gone in a flash and Thanksgiving is just around the corner. Little Phoenix and I have been sick pretty continuously. It has been about three months for Phoenix and over 6 weeks for me. I mentally prepared myself for Phoenix to be sick from 6 months to a year like Axel was. I think it is mostly from their suppressed immune systems from their food allergies.
We continue to not have much luck with the introduction of solids. Phoenix is mostly eating carrots and different types of squashes. I am hoping to try lamb and cooked apples over the next couple of weeks. She ate a few bites of lamb for me when I cooked it for Keith and I last night, but today when I tried to give it to her she refused so we will see how that goes. She has been very interested in eating what we are. I feel horrible for her that she can't experiment like other children. If her reactions weren't consistently as bad as they have been I would be more lenient.
Daddy took the day off of work on Halloween so the four of us were able to spend most of the day together.
At 12 pm Axel's school had a small Halloween party. The four of us headed over there. Axel had fun playing different games, carnival style, while daddy and mommy had fun talking with other parents and trying to get a few photos of Phoenix for her scrapbook.
Instead of passing out candy or having Halloween sweets the kids were able to earn prizes with the games they participated in. This was great for Axel, since he is unable to eat any store bought candy or sweets.
Daddy and Phoenix!
Mommy and Phoenix!
After the party we headed home. Phoenix was suppose to take a nice long nap while we carved a pumpkin and made some food. Phoenix had other plans.
So I used the opportunity to try for another photo or two.
Of course, Axel wanted to get in on the photo action as well.He threw his home made witch hat and cape on for the picture. Axel took a ton of pride in his costume. He worked hard a making his hat and didn't care that witches were suppose to be female. He didn't want to be a warlock and didn't understand why he couldn't be a boy witch with a witch hat. I was really proud of him for being creative and thinking up a costume and then going through with making it.
Daddy was finally ready to carve the second pumpkin with Axel. Axel and I had carved our other pumpkin together the previous night so it was daddy's turn to get in on the fun.
Of course, their fun was boy style and the two of them had fun joking around with one another.
I absolutely love this photo because you can see how much fun the two of them are having together.
After the pumpkin was carved we put them out on the front porch, took a bath, ate dinner and got dressed to go trick or treating!
We had planned to go as a family, but poor Phoenix started to melt down in the bath and ended up being put to sleep at 5:45pm. So Axel and I headed over to his classmates house down the street.
Here Axel and Axel are happily trick or treating together with their glow sticks. We had a little mishap about 35 minutes in where our Axel tripped and fell and cut his lip pretty bad. We had to head home to get the bleeding to stop. It worked out well because Keith and I had intended to trade places. Once Axel was all cleaned up he set out to find the other Axel and continued to trick or treat while I passed out candy and caught up on some much needed reading.
Sometime last week I decided to put Phoenix in the bath tub with Axel because she seemed ready for it. Oh boy, did I ever make her day. The girl is IN LOVE with the bath tub. She absolutely squeals with delight anytime I sing the bath time song. She splashes and plays as if she has always taken baths.
I have had so much fun each night watching the two of them play together in the tub.
Last Sunday, Axel and I were suppose to go to a concert with my friend Julia and her daughter Sadie, but circumstances came up, so instead we had a play date at her house. No matter how long these two go without seeing each other, they play extremely well together when they do see each other.
Phoenix is such a funny little girl. She absolutely loves water bottles. She tries to drink out of them all of the time. She talks often and is determined to get what she wants. She is stubborn and a fighter. She will push back when pushed and vocally let us know when she is not happy. She continues to be more and more mobile. She walks on her knees, cruises when holding on to anything and crawls faster than I have seen most babies crawl. She is an absolute joy to be around and will make you smile from ear to ear by her spunky personality.
This past Friday we had a play date with my friend Tiffany and her two children Avery and Charlotte. The last time we had gotten together the girls were just sitting. It was really fun to see them crawl and stand and interact together.
Avery, who will be three next month has really blossomed vocally and played really well with Axel once she got warmed up. Typically the two of them have played separately next to each other. This was the first time that they actually played together, which was really fun to see.
Yesterday afternoon Axel wanted to go to Jack Fischer park for the first time in months. I was excited to take him upon his request because I love to see him come out of his shell. Sister got into the swings for the second time ever. She absolutely loved it. Axel also enjoyed being pushed in the big boy swing. He actually swung for a whopping 5 minutes which is quite the record for him.
Phoenix loved the sand.
Brother and her played well together in the sand.
She often seems and acts so much older than 9 months old.
She absolutely loves to explore and do what brother does.
She even had the opportunity to taste a leaf :)
And Axel warmed up to playing with "strangers" after watching them play for over 10 minutes. He had a lot of fun helping the kids make the river of water.
Phoenix enjoyed watching them and wanted to join in on the action as well. Unfortunately, I didn't want her to get wet so we played a very long game of her knee walking to them and me carrying her away.
Today was a great low key day. The kids and I played and cooked most of the day and when daddy got home from his bike ride they played outside in the leaves and helped daddy get some much needed yard work done.
Axel had a blast!
Phoenix had more fun watching than participating. Here is the picture I got just before she starting crying.
I have several super cute videos I want to post, but I am tired and need to get to bed. I hope you enjoyed all of the wonderful photos of the kids! Check back soon for a video blog for some good laughs and smiles.
