Sacramento visit and more

Last Wednesday night we headed to Grandma Susan's house. What should have been a smooth 2 hour ride that Phoenix and Axel would sleep on,  turned into a 3 hour ride. The accident that slowed us down caused havoc because instead of being at Grandma's with the kids asleep in bed both kids were up until 10:30am as Phoenix was sitting in her vomit for almost the last hour of the drive. And the easy transition into bed was even more difficult as I had to get Phoenix cleaned up and put Axel to bed and then somehow get Phoenix to bed without her getting sick again! I am still unsure if Phoenix had a virus or a reaction (again) to broccoli. I let her eat a very small amount off my plate before leaving. It is hard to believe that broccoli has caused vomiting for days the three times she has tried it. Moral of the story is no more broccoli for a minimum of 6 months! 

On Thursday we headed to Auntie's new house. We had planned on heading to the park and running errands, but Braylin and Phoenix traded off naps for 4 of the 6 hours we were at her house. Luckily, we managed to get to the park around 2:30 pm and the kids got some good play time in before sitting in 30 minutes of traffic on the way home to Grandma's house.

Phoenix absolutely loves the swings. She went from one swing back to the other for almost the entire hour and a half that we were at the park.

We were able to manage to get a picture of the cousins together. I am looking forward to when they are a little older and can really play together.

On Friday we headed to Fairy Tale Land because Axel decided that is where he wanted to spend his morning. It was no big surprise that Phoenix loved it too!

She couldn't wait to climb in and out of everything that she possibly could. She went up and down the slides and laughed at the animals she saw.

I was able to capture my annual picture of Axel against the giant ruler. I know that he has grown, but I just wish it was at the same rate at his buddies. He was only a couple of inches shorter than his friends, but now he is 4-6 inches shorter than most of his friends. Good thing is he is doing a better job of eating a variety of foods, which I think will help, or so I hope!

On Saturday we headed to Connor's birthday party at Pump It Up Junior. Axel was his shy normal self again, but after about 10 minutes of trying to hold both kids I handed Phoenix off to Axel R's mom and started taking Axel up and down the slides. Amazingly, after about 5 times he said he didn't need me anymore and he started playing with his friends. He only cried once because he was scared, but soon overcame his fear. I was very proud of him.

Phoenix on the other hand was ready to explore from the beginning. She wanted to do everything that the big kids were doing. Her lack of fear amazes me just as much as Axel's overly cautious personality. They couldn't be more different if they tried!

After an hour of playing the kids settled down to sing happy birthday to Connor and ate some pizza and had some cake.

Axel doesn't want to try restaurant food yet so I made sure to bring him his lunch. He says if the pizza was homemade he would try it. Ha! I have created a monster :)

 On Saturday night daddy took Axel to the Monster truck show in Oakland with Axel R and his dad. The boys had an awesome time. Daddy took the camera, but didn't take any photos :( Both Axel's are already talking about going back next year!

 

On Sunday we had a nice relaxing day of family time. I have been feeling under the weather for over a week, but just can't seem to fight off what is slowing me down or get the full blown cold. We will hopefully have a nice and relaxing weekend this weekend as I need a break!

Phoenix seems to be feeling better. She had stopped eating for a few days and her eczema became so bad it was almost weeping. Her cheeks became very red as well. We decided to follow the eczema diet for a few weeks to see how she responds. I am not sure if it is coincidence, but her skin looks remarkably better after 4 days on the diet. We eliminated soy, eggs, tomatoes, seeds and nuts from her diet. The book also suggests eliminating dairy, but we want to wait and see how she responds to this diet first. Her appetite has been very good the past couple of days and she is only waking once at night again. 

Axel's appetite has also improved over the past 5 days. He is sleeping really well and becoming more and more charming. It is so cool to see him maturing and developing his personality. He has become so much more cooperative over the past couple of months. I am amazed! We are currently working on two very important milestones to prepare him for kindergarten. The first one is practical and a must.....he must wipe his own butt! This is a very big deal to a child who is a little OCD like his mom. He doesn't want any stains on his underwear and thus fights the battle of practicing. He wants to be perfect now! The other milestone is reading. He is starting to read, but again he doesn't want to take the time to really learn the words because he wants to read all of his books now! I know he will learn both of these skills over the next 5 months before kindergarten starts, but I just find it amusing at how similar he is to his mommy and daddy!