Family of Five....

We have had a bit of a rough spell as we finally have all realized that we are a family of five. Becoming a family of 5 has been toughest on Phoenix and now Axel. Phoenix was in full protest with her behavior becoming harder and harder to manage. With the help of my handy Love and Logic books and very consistent boundaries from both daddy and I, things are finally starting to improve. We have had a lot of tears and a lot of hard lessons. Phoenix has gone to bed hungry, had to return a sticker she didn't say thank you for, had to go without her toys, had to go without her bag for daycare because she forgotten it and the list goes on. 

Axel has had a rough week or two as he is having some social issues again at school and feeling "unloved" by everyone. He has been in full protest with everything again. He has some hard lessons coming up as he has to be okay with the decisions he makes. We are trying to stop all warnings and trying to replace these typical warnings with loving statements. If these loving statements are not heard then both Axel and Phoenix have to reap the consequences. This can mean going hungry or not having homework turned in, not getting books before bed because brushing teeth took 15 minutes. You get the point. Besides the lots of tears that have been shed by all of us, life is good, and we are grateful for each day as a family. 

The kids have been so excited for the pool. Here they are practicing with their goggles in the bath tub. We finally made it to the pool on Sunday. It was suppose to be hot, but the high winds made it cooler than expected, which meant that Phoenix only lasted about 10 minutes in the pool before she was too cold to handle it. Instead she played in the grassy area while daddy and Axel swam. Rubix and I checked out the baby pool and played in the shade. 

 Last weekend, the Jolleys came to visit and watch Axel's baseball game. I wasn't able to get any pictures of the girls playing together, but I did capture this picture of Auntie and Rubix before they left.

 Here is a picture of Rubix at 6 weeks old.

Today Rubix is 7 weeks old! He is becoming more alert and stronger. He can stand for a minute or two. He kicks and swings his arms around. Still without voluntary control, but fun to see. 

I feel like he is starting to look a lot different. 

I no longer feel like I am looking at Axel or Phoenix. He now has his own look to me,the Rubix look!

 Here is another picture I took of him last Tuesday. He looks big right? He weighs over 11 lbs. I weighed him by holding him on the scale and subtracting my weight at my 6 week post partum check up last week. The difference was 11.4 pounds, but he had his cloth diaper and clothes on.

 Phoenix and I continue to go to story time on Thursdays. There was a special visitor that we had to get a picture with to show daddy and Axel.

 We also still go to the park on Fridays. She is getting better and better at her balance bike.

 She also taught herself how to swing standing. I showed her how to lean forward and backward and she did it easily. I think she will be able to propel herself sitting very soon too.

She continues to be a daredevil and have very little fear!

 Phoenix loves to be called Elsa and have Elsa hair. Here I did Elsa hair and I tried to get it to come around the side to the front, but her hair is not quite long enough.

 If you couldn't tell from the picture, Phoenix was in protest and not a happy camper, unlike my happy boys in this picture.

 I love how they are best friends most of the time, that is, when they are not enemies!

 This past Friday we got lucky and saw Pheeny's best friend, Macey at the park. The girls got to play together for an hour and they both got dropped off at Angela's for lunch and naptime. Both Winnie and I had to volunteer at school. I brought Rubix with me and he only made it through half of the lesson plan before I had to excuse myself to feed him. Luckily, the teacher, students and other two moms who I volunteer with were all very understanding.

 I love these pictures of the girls.

 Rubix had a really bad week last week and was uncomfortable after I tried eating fish. He has been much better since Saturday and is starting to eat less often again, about 8 or 9 times a day. He is also sleeping much better again and only getting up 2 times a night. He is sleeping in his crib in his room for most naps during the day and half of the night. The second half of the night I have him in our room because he hasn't consistently showed me that he can go right back to sleep with ease. Sometimes he still gags or chokes on his spit up. I am working on setting up a baby monitor. Once I have a baby monitor I won't be as worried about putting him back to sleep in his own room.

The big news this week is that Annika is back from school. She has come over the past couple of days to help work on getting Rubix to take a bottle. He hasn't been very good the couple of times that Keith has tried. After switching the nipple/bottle he drank 3 oz without having to nurse afterwards for comfort! This was a huge success because that means I am that much closer to being able to ride my bike for more than an hour! I have tried to ride the past two Sundays. Both times Rubix cried for over 20 minutes, despite me being gone for just over an hour. Hopefully, this Sunday will be easier.

Well, I need to get to bed because I have no idea what is in store for me. The past few nights I have been up for more than 2 hours because of Phoenix and Rubix waking. I sure hope Phoenix gets over this phase soon and back to sleeping through the night and that Rubix continues to stretch his sleeping cycle longer and longer. He is stuck at the 4 to 5 hour mark and I would love for him to consistently sleep 6 or more hours straight. Until next time......

Rubix is 1 month old

April 15th marks 1 month for little Rubix! He continues to grow like a weed. He has outgrown most of the newborn clothing and has outgrown the new born swaddles. Not because he is over the 12 to 13 pound weight limit that they say on the tags, but because he is so long. He fills in the 0 to 3 month and 3 month clothing quite well. You can see by the outfit he is wearing in this picture.

This week has been an emotional roller coaster for me. I hit rock bottom on Wednesday after having a very hard day and night on Tuesday. I was at my wits end with frustration on Rubix's eating and sleeping ability. He was nursing every hour for only a few minutes day and night and extremely fussy. I thought maybe I should give up nursing and just put him on Neocate, the prescription formula that Phoenix had to go on because of all of her food sensitivities. I gave up the Big 8 and tried to introduce wheat and almonds with little success so I went back to avoiding all Big 8, plus corn, and anything citrus or acidic. I prayed and prayed all day about it on Wednesday and our amazing Lord gave me the patience and wisdom to know what to do.

 I put Phoenix in daycare on Thursday and we did baby boot camp Wednesday afternoon and all day Thursday. Baby boot camp means getting Rubix to sleep by himself in the pack and play and getting him to eat full meals. This was accomplished by carrying him in the Ergo carrier until he was nearly asleep or had just fallen asleep and then putting him down in the pack and play. We did this several times until he was able to stay asleep in his crib. This resulted in a 4 hour and 3 hour sleep cycle at night and only two wakings from 9:30pm until 6:30am 4 nights in a row! This is huge and I am feeling so blessed. Doing a bed time routine starting with the bath has been magic for all three of our kids and I am grateful that Rubix is starting to get into a routine. His bed time appears to be around 7pm and his wake time seems to be around 7 am. He usually eats around 9:30pm, 12:30am and 4am. Today he even put himself to sleep for the first time during one of his naps. I put him down and he opened and closed his eyes for about 10 minutes before falling asleep. He is also able to fall asleep without me picking him up. I can shake the pack and play or put my hand on his chest and gently rock him back and forth. I can't believe what a difference 4 to 5 days can make!

I apparently forgot about a bunch of photos I took on March 31st to capture Axel on his birthday. The picture above is before school. The picture below is after dinner when we sang him happy birthday and had chocolate cupcakes! I also took pictures of him opening gifts from those of you who sent them. He is very thankful and appreciates all of them!

The swim team week went really well. Axel swam all 5 days and really enjoyed the second half of the week when they started back stroke. Last Sunday I even heard him say that he wanted to swim. He will start swim team again tomorrow, Monday the 18th after having a week off. Although practice is offered 5 days a week we think we are going to try to attend 3 days a week right now on the days he doesn't have baseball.  Maybe later in the season when baseball is over we will bump it up to 4 or 5 days. We will see how much he is enjoying it then.

The kids love Rubix. They are very sweet to him. This is a typical occurrence in our house where they are spending time with their brother.

Phoenix loves to jump. She jumps off of the couch, rocks, stairs, and anything she can. Last week in the park Axel joined in for a jumping frenzy.

As a physical therapist I love seeing their perfect jumping and landing form with their butt back like they are sitting in a chair. Too bad is slowly changes as our flexibility and strength changes as we age.

Phoenix has been having a tough time the past few weeks with the transition of losing baby status. Daddy and Axel went to Monster Trucks last week on Saturday night. Phoenix and I, along with Rubix of course, stayed home. We watched a Dora The Explorer movie and did our usual night time routine, but with a little twist. She asked if she could take a bath in Rubix's bath after we had given him a bath and put him to bed. She had so much fun she stayed in their for over 30 minutes. She is a tough cookie to crack. We have continued Phoenix boot camp and she is slowly learning to put toys away and to cooperate. It is really hard for her and Daddy and I as she continues to push her boundaries. Luckily, taking most of her toys away and making her put what she is playing with away before she plays with something else is helping. She also knows that we are all business so she is learning to listen and cooperate. There has been a lot more tears, but in the end it will be well worth having a sweet child.

Last week on Sunday we went to Auntie Shannon's house for a family gathering. Everyone enjoyed meeting Rubix. Here are a couple of pictures from the weekend. Grandma Susan and Rubix...
Auntie and Rubix.

Grandma Susan gave Rubix a diaper cover that she made. I wanted to show her it fits perfect. She thought it was going to be too big. The front flaps are almost too short because he and his cloth diaper are so big!

I love the owl on the butt...oh so cute!

Phoenix has been riding the balance bike whenever she can. She can finally balance with both legs up. She is such a dare devil. She is constantly making me nervous by testing her limits, whether it is on the bike or play structure. Here she is at Jack Fischer Park coming down the hill this past Friday.

After a cold spell and a little more rain we had a heat wave this weekend. We wanted to make it to the pool, but circumstances didn't allow. Hopefully we will be able to go the pool next weekend. Although it is a bit busy. Axel was invited to his first sleep over. We are not sure if it is going to happen next weekend because of baseball practice and games on Friday and Saturday, but we will see. I can't believe that he is finally old enough for a sleep over. 

I hope to get photos mailed out of Axel and the family in the next couple of days. I have them cut out and organized so hopefully they will make it in the mail soon! :)

Axel turns 7!

Last Saturday we had Axel's 7 year birthday party. As you can see daddy made a great cake as always. We went with the chocolate vegan cake with vegan frosting (coconut oil and non dairy soy free butter and powdered sugar). I made the chocolate vegan cupcakes with vegan chocolate glaze for Axel's classmates on his birthday last Thursday and both were a success. The teacher wrote me for the recipe she liked them so much. 

Here is a few of Axel's friends he had at the party. He wanted the same big jump house and slide and again it was greatly enjoyed by everyone.

For a party favor this year we did tie dye t-shirts. I did not manage to get any pictures of the kids making a mess because my hands were full with managing the kids. I purchased a kit that allowed 6 kids to tie dye their shirts at a time. It was a little more stressful than the Lego kits and super hero costumes from the previous two years, but I do think the kids enjoyed it.  The only bummer thing is that we did the shirts later into the party and a few kids had to go before getting their party favor. That is the only bummer thing about Californians. They are always late to parties and then tend to leave early because they have someplace else to go :)

Since Phoenix really wanted a jump house for her birthday we decided she could invite her best buddy to Axel's party. Axel was, of course, completely on board with inviting little Macey so that Phoenix could enjoy herself as much as he was. Initially the girls were intimidated by all of the boys so they rode bikes and played on the play structure. Daddy was able to get all of the big kids outs so that the little ones could enjoy the jump house too. Once the girls were comfortable alone, they didn't mind being in their with the big kids too.

I was really impressed that Phoenix was able to climb the ladder to the slides by herself. Axel needed help initially during his 5 year birthday party so to see Phoenix muscle herself up the ladder at 3 years old was really impressive!

The birthday boy had 2 hours of non stop fun with his friends. Unfortunately, because it was the beginning of Spring break most people had to leave by 5pm. That didn't stop our kiddos from playing for another 30 + minutes by themselves.

They jumped and slid down the ladder over and over until they got all of  their bounces and slides out! Axel was being silly sliding and stopping every foot or two.

Here is Phoenix hitting Axel for grabbing her and pulling her down the slide. It is so hard as a parent because when moments like this happen they are both at fault. One was the instigator (Axel for pulling Phoenix down unexpectedly) and one was the person hitting instead of using words (Phoenix). Hopefully, one day they will both learn!

After we cleaned up the park and ate some dinner Axel opened his gifts.

Here is Daddy being silly with Rubix as we watched Axel open gifts.

On Sunday we were suppose to go to Aunties house for a late Easter gathering, but Grandma came down with a cold. Instead, Rubix got his first bath! His belly button was finally healed enough to tolerate being in water. He really needed it. He had gotten to the point where he had finger and toe fuzz!

I took this picture of Rubix because I wanted to do a side by side comparison of Axel in this same outfit. Can you tell which one is Rubix and which one is Axel? Rubix is 3 weeks and 2 days and Axel is 6 weeks in this picture. I think they are about the same size. Can you see why I think I have another little Axel again? To me it is hard to tell them apart!

Here are the cute brothers together.

We have had all week off from baseball because of Spring break. We decided it was the perfect opportunity to try the swim team at our new pool that we joined. Westgate Cabana club opened April 2nd and swim team started on the 4th. They have 3 weeks of preseason and Axel is doing week 1 and 3 of preseason and then is joining their practice swim team. We don't know if he will decide to compete at all this year, but we are just excited to see him really thrive at a sport. He was so good compared to the other new kids he got bumped up to the group of kids who were on swim team for 1 year. You can see from this picture he is passing the other kids who have done swim team before. He is the fastest kid with the kick board. Now all we have to do is to get him to remember to kick that well while doing free style!

On Tuesday Axel was suppose to have the peanut oral challenge test to see if he is really allergic to peanuts or if it is just an oral allergy. His blood work that looked at each component came back positive for the oral allergy and slightly positive for the true anaphylaxis peanut allergy. He was sent home because his outdoor allergies are so bad right now. To bad the doctor and nurse didn't listen to me when I told them this during several phone calls. We won't try this again until August before school starts in order for Axel to completely get over his seasonal allergies. 

Tuesday late afternoon the kids and I went to the dentist. I lucked out with Rubix sleeping most of the time which allowed me to easily get my teeth cleaned and have Phoenix on my lap for her teeth cleaning. 

You can see how much taller Axel is from this picture compared to last time we were at the dentist. We had his 7 year wellness check this morning and he is now 45 inches tall which puts him at the 8th percentile! yeah!!!! We hope he continues the faster growth rate so that he will eventually "catch up" to his peers. It would be great if he ends up taller than 5 foot 6 inches! Anyways, his weight is 38.4 lbs. which keeps him at the one percentile. Hopefully, his gut will continue to heal and he will start to eat more and gain more weight. Only time will tell. 

Phoenix is growing like a weed. She has been dealing with a chronic yeast infection because she doesn't wipe well and doesn't want help either. I had the doctor take a look today and she agreed it is a yeast infection and that I need to apply the lotrimin 4x/day instead of 2x/day and up to 2 weeks, not just one week. This was a much different story than what I was told from the advice nurse 2 weeks ago. Anyways, we had to weigh and measure her height to have the doctor take a look at her privates. She weighed 27.1 pounds and if I am not mistaken was either 38 1/4 or 39 1/4 inch which means she grew either 1 or 2 inches since her wellness check on January 21st. She eats a lot more food than Axel on a regular basis so it makes sense that she is growing so much.

Here is cute baby Rubix who was patiently waiting for Phoenix to get done with her cleaning so that he could finish eating :)

Last I wanted to share some cute photos from the photo session we had on the 25th of March. I love this picture of Axel and Phoenix.

Daddy and Rubix are so cute and handsome!

One of the 5 family photos that we took.

Axel looking like a little man.

My handsome 7 year old!

This one is going on the wall!

Wow! Can you believe I have been doing this blog for over 7 years now?! Where does the time go?!