First Tooth, Dentist, Pumpkin Patch and more

It is hard to believe it has nearly been three weeks since the last post, but unfortunately I came down with a bad cold that wiped me out for nearly 10 days. 

I will start with three weeks ago today with our biannual dentist appointment. Axel has matured so much. I explained to Axel that I would likely need him to go first so that I could get Phoenix to fall asleep in the carrier because it was her nap time during the appointment. He gladly obliged. You can see how much he has grown. It is amazing to think that he went from needing to sit on my lap to sitting by himself and going before he saw me have my teeth cleaned. I was extremely proud of him. 

We had to run errands later in the day and it was quite hot and sunny. Axel asked for sun glasses because it was too bright in the back seat for him. I handed him our spare sunglasses that the entire family uses if needed. I thought he looked exceptionally cute so I snapped a few photos at the stop night. 

While Axel was at school, I desperately needed to get some things done on the computer, so I allowed Phoenix to roam around Louis room. I thought it was super cute how she found Louis's water and played in it just like Axel use to. It was well worth the change of clothes as she was fully entertained for 20 minutes while I managed to get some work done.

 Phoenix continues to become more and more mobile. She is becoming more comfortable cruising around holding onto objects and standing to play.

Here is another example of where I found her after leaving her for a minute while I filled my water glass. I love seeing her explore. Just like Axel, she loves to stand and play.

Last week Axel desperately needed some boundaries for himself and his toys. He set up a barrier that allowed him to play with his Lego's without our little terror, Phoenix, destroying his creations. You can see Phoenix's head just peeking out where the alphabet mats are. She was desperately trying to get into Axel's safe play area. 

I thought this picture was particularly cute because he reminded me of Charlie brown, where Charlie Brown's friend would sit on a small stool and play the piano. I love how Axel is so creative in his play and is able to problem solve. The two of them had a blast listening to the pre-recorded music and dancing around the playroom. Axel has been having little "dance parties" since he rediscovered his keyboard a week ago.

During Phoenix's nap, Axel and I started our fun Halloween projects that we purchased last year after Halloween. Our first creation was this haunted house. It doesn't quite look the same a week later because Axel has been playing with it and removing and resticking the stickers. As we all know stickers loose their stickiness, but the important thing is he had 2 hours of fun building the haunted house and hours of fun playing with it since. 

Every day for the past week, Axel and I added one more decoration to the house. The front of the house is now fully decorated with our fun projects and decorations. We have the spooky garland, 

the pumpkin hanging ornaments that line the gate, Axel's school creations

 and fun rats all in the foyer area. 

We also have decals on the window, which are hard to see, and the lovely haunted house on display in the bay window.

This past Sunday we went to the pumpkin patch with Eileen, Luis and Alex. Axel was able to paint his annual pumpkin.

 Phoenix watched, but really wanted to participate.

 This year they added this pumpkin train that the boys were able to play in.

 Daddy wanted to get in on the action.

 Daddy snapped this photo of Phoenix and I because he really liked the big pumpkin next to my head. Silly Daddy!

 Here is Axel, showing daddy how big he is!

 I spent the entire past week trying to get a photo of Phoenix's gums to show her first tooth broke through on Oct 3rd, but I have had zero success. We are excited that she finally has her tooth since she has appeared to be in the teething process for sometime.

We have lots of fun upcoming events so check back soon for more Szolusha fun!

Phoenix turns 8 months, our first rain and much more!

Here is the picture of the three new cousins. I took this last week at Auntie's house. On the left is Braylin, 1 month, in the middle is Ainsley (Shannon's niece on the Jolley side), 4 months and Phoenix on the right at 7.5 months.

On Thursday Axel made me some yummy chicken noodle and soup. I was so impressed with his creative side I had to take a picture.

Phoenix's stomach virus turned into a cold this past Monday. On Friday, I dropped Phoenix off at daycare and walked Axel to school to volunteer for the day. At 12pm, right after lunch, I received a phone message that I was listening to as Angela, the daycare provider showed up at Axel's school. She had been trying to call me for since 11:50am. Phoenix had just woke up from he nap looking worse than the picture below. Because Angela couldn't get a hold of me she decided to drive to Axel's school. She then dropped me off at home so I could get my car and pick up Phoenix. I took off to the ER and Angela was kind enough to pick up Axel after school at 1:15pm. Angela and I both thought it was an allergic reaction to something, but we wanted to make sure. The ER was amazing. Phoenix and I were rushed in and seen within 10 minutes. The doctor agreed it was an allergic reaction to something and luckily their was no respiratory involvement. Phoenix was given prednisolone and Benadryl right away and then was observed for 2 hours. The picture below was after being on the medication for an hour and a half. You can only imagine how bad she looked.

What did she react to? Well......we are not 100% sure. I had ordered a hypoallergenic, amino acid based semi solid (like rice cereal) from Neocate. It is the same company that makes her amino acid based formula. she has not really enjoyed it and has mostly refused it. I thought maybe it was the lack of taste. I decided to try banana again and had mixed the two of them for 5 days, 1 meal each day. On Thursday she refused to eat it for me so I didn't push the issue. Apparently, she ate it on Friday at Angela's and even though Phoenix's mouth started to get a red circle around it Angela thought it was redness from her cold. It wasn't until Phoenix woke up from her nap a couple of hours later that she had redness and hives all over her body. Typically most reactions like this are within a day or two after exposure for the first time. Historically, all of Phoenix's reaction's have been within the third time receiving a new food. This severe of a reaction 5 days later doesn't seem to make sense. Luckily, she is okay and is doing well. The other positive outcome of this is that allergy and GI are taking her case a little bit more seriously and allergy finally agrees that she is not too young to get officially tested so that we have a better idea of exactly what to avoid, instead of doing this crazy trial and error game that I have been playing the past two months. We will hopefully talk to our allergist next week and come up with a game plan at what we are going to do next.

Here is Phoenix at 5:40am on Saturday morning. She looks great. Both her skin and her temperament were back to normal (almost). I went to go turn on our Espresso Machine and when I returned to the pinball room 20 seconds later she was standing here playing.

Yesterday, Saturday September 21st Phoenix turned 8 months. She has so much personality and is super physical. She weights 15 and a half pounds and is one solid muscle.

She loves playing with her brother and wants to do everything that he is doing and play with the exact toy or Lego piece that he is playing with.

Brother also wants to play with exactly what Phoenix is playing with. Who new children 4 years apart still battle for toys and attention  :)

Yesterday was also our first rain. Axel has been begging to wear this rain poncho that Grandma Susan bought him.

He has over an hour of fun playing in the rain!

Daddy was in the garage working on the bikes. Daddy captured an awesome picture of Louis and Axel. Our handsome boy, continues to love school. I had so much fun volunteering on Friday. I was extremely proud at how well behaved Axel is. He is such a good kid and I am proud to be his mother. He is also thriving socially and is apart of the boy click. The click now consists of Axel Gabriel, Axel Keith, Ethan, Connor and Nathan. Axel Gabriel lives down the street and Axel Keith and him have played a handful of times together. They are now instant friends and happened to play together yesterday for over an hour as Axel Gabriel and his father were walking by our house and ended up staying for a short visit.

When Phoenix and Axel are not taking toys away from each other they are chasing after each other. Yesterday Phoenix had a blast chasing after Axel on his old scooter bike.

It is so much fun to see them enjoy each other at this stage in life.

Here is a short video of :Phoenix sitting up from her stomach. The only thing left that she needs to master is cruising and walking. Check back soon for more Szolusha fun!

Oh, I am bummed that I didn't hit "publish" for the last blog that I stayed up to do last Sunday night. Sorry for those of you who I told there was a new blog up.  Now you were able to view two! :)

Phoenix's first virus

Phoenix had a flu virus this past week. She had her first fever Monday afternoon through Wednesday morning. It peeked at 101.3 and was mostly around 100 degrees for the 30+ hours she had the fever. She had some vomiting on Tuesday and then had a rash and diarrhea Wednesday through Friday. Luckily, she seems mostly healthy. Here eating and sleeping are still off a bit as she is waking twice a night to drink and isn't consuming solids very often.

I started trying this very expensive hypoallergenic rice cereal for the past four days, which she doesn't seem to want to eat. the good news is that she doesn't seem to be reacting to it. today I tried banana mashed up with the rice cereal and she ate most of it. She did throw up a small amount, but had no other reactions. I might be pushing the solids too much with her getting over a stomach bug, but it is challenging for me to be getting up multiple times at night to feed her.  I have started to think that her GERD is becoming more of an issue and might try to put her on medication. I want to wait just a bit longer though, because I rather not put her on medication.

Axel, on the other hand has had a great week of sleep and has slept through the night 4 nights in a row. If he continues this week he is going to get to camp out in the pinball room with daddy. I hope that he succeeds, because I think it would be a fun experience for him. You will have to check back next week to see if he was successful.

 Phoenix is such a funny little girl. She wants to grow up so quickly and do everything that brother does or any other kid for that matter. Here Pheeny is at 7.5 months trying to ride brother's first scooter bike.

She is just a little too short to sit on the seat and completely touch the ground. I am sure within a month she will be tall enough and have it down pat.

 Phoenix and Axel continue to "play" more often together. Axel is really great with her most of the time, however, there are more moments than I want to recollect where he is just all over her and her space, taking away the toys she is playing with. It is mostly for attention and I am hoping this is something that he will grow out of quickly!

 Phoenix loved this drum that Axel use to play with when he was younger.

 She had a ton of fun banging it as brother was busy stacking these plastic blocks. The funny thing about this picture is that I got the blocks out for Phoenix and the drum out for Axel and they both were interested more in what the other person had so they nicely switched. They played long enough for me to get dinner started.

 This random picture is because I was so incredibly excited that the one somewhat ugly/boring succulent that I had suddenly flowered. How awesome that even the succulents that don't possibly look like they can flower, produce a flower. This particular succulent was the one given to Grandpa Bruce from Auntie Shannon's wedding. I thought it was nearly dead several times, but magically it came back. Actually this entire pot of succulents are all from Auntie's wedding. Beautiful, huh?

Speaking of Auntie Shannon, we had a nice short visit at her house yesterday. We went to celebrate her birthday, which is today. As Uncle Ryan said, she was celebrating 30 for the 6th time this year :) Her and Braylin are doing great. Happy Birthday Auntie.

Yesterday, we also had our new babysitter start. Both kids did great with her and Axel loves having a babysitter. He is really excited that Genna will be coming every Saturday morning for a few hours. Keith and I are even more excited that we will have 3 hours together every week and more family time the entire weekend.

Phoenix has mastered going from stomach, to crawling to sitting to climbing over objects. I can't seem to catch a video of her doing this, but here is how I found her when I set her down in the kitchen while I was doing the dishes. She is starting to have a lot of personality.

I tried to capture an updated picture of the kids together, but I wasn't very successful. This was the best that I could do.

 Here is a prime example of Axel wanting to take away the recorder from Phoenix, but giving in to sharing it :)

 This afternoon we had fun family time playing in the park. Axel is getting really good at hitting the ball. You can see he has a great natural swing.

 Phoenix also had some fun playing in the park as well.

 Here is my last attempt for the day to get a cute updated picture of the two of them. Axel pushed Phoenix backwards, but atleast they are both smiling!

Pheeny stands and crawls quickly!

Watch out for Phoenix cruising and walking soon!

 Here she is pulling herself up from standing.

Here Phoenix is happily following mommy after waking up from her nap!

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.