Axel's first sleep over, practice swim meet and swim-athon

This past Saturday was a very big day. Axel had his first swim meet. It was a practice meet, but it was still a big deal. He did all 5 categories, 25 and 50 yard free style, 25 yard backstroke, breast stroke and butterfly. They wanted to get times for all of the kids for all of the events so that they can seed them and put them in their top 3 events for the first "real" swim meet of the year on June 25th. 

After nearly 5 hours in the sun, Axel came home for a quick lunch and rest time before heading to a birthday party. After the birthday party filled with jump houses, water and entertainment he then came home to get ready for his first sleep over! We invited Nico's family over for dinner so they could get to know us better. We have known the Winters since Axel was on the same soccer team as Nico last fall, but still thought it was a good idea to have the family over for dinner first. Nico was one of the determining factors of Axel wanting to join the swim team. Axel has been great buddies with Nico almost all year now and they play together every recess.

Before I continue on with the sleep over story here is a cute picture of Axel and Rubix. Rubix is very interested in his surroundings and loves to look at faces. He is so interested in his environment it is hard for him to shut it out long enough to eat and sleep. The past two weeks have been some of the hardest weeks as Rubix decided to no longer eat well or sleep well. I am not sure if his stomach was the root cause or if being over tired was the root cause. Regardless of the cause, I have been working really hard to get him caught up on sleep, but that means that I can't do ANYTHING else because it takes a long time to get him to sleep and often I have to hold him in order to extend his nap times. I can't remember the last time I have cried so much and been so incredibly frustrated. I feel like I might be reliving Axel's sleep regression that was food allergies the entire time. Because of that, Keith and I decided to hire Annika for full time help starting next week. With her help I hope to have Rubix 100% on the bottle during the day and nursing at night by the end of next week and 100% on the bottle the week after. If that goes well, then I will order Neocate and start to slowly transition him onto the formula to see if that helps with the excessive spit up, fussiness, lack of eating more than a few minutes, and poor sleep. 

 I am almost ready to hire a sleep consultant as well. I really need Rubix to be able to put himself to sleep for naps in order to go to Angela's. There is no way that Angela has the capacity to walk him around to help him fall asleep for every nap! I try to let him cry it out, but after 10 minutes he is coughing and gagging and spits up all over himself. I have tried for over 2 hours the past two nights letting him cry and then calming him, having him spit up and then letting him cry himself to sleep again. All of this with no help. The bummer thing about trying to "sleep train" him is that it gets him overly tired and then his nights get worse and causes him to wake 3 to 4 times rather than just 2 times a night. This morning he refused to go back to bed after getting up at 5:15 am.  A nice 2 mile walk got him to sleep and then I held him in the carrier until 8:40 am. I am praying and hoping things will get better and soon so that I don't feel like I am missing out on Phoenix and Axel's life.  

Daddy continues to stay home once a week to work on getting his leg and arm better. He is able to tolerate a lot more as far as standing, walking and "exercise". His shoulder also seems to be on the mend. I really do hope by the end of the summer he is back to riding his bike every other day at a minimum for 1-2 hours. Tomorrow is the last day of school and Daddy is taking the day off to take Axel to the Giant vs. Red Sox baseball game with his buddy Axel R and his dad, David. I am jealous and wish I could go, but am excited for the two of them.

I love this picture of Rubix checking out Daddy and Daddy getting some more Rubix time while being home during the week.

Ok, back to the sleep over. Here is Nico and Axel. Funny, huh?! Yes, Axel loves to have best buddies that are giants! Nico is not only tall like Rishaan, but also just plain old big!

I was busy with Rubix most of the night so in the morning I had the boys pose for me as if they were sleeping. So cute how they both have a lovey. Little Axel with a little lovey and Big Nico with a big lovey.

I have been praying for Axel with a particular focus on friends for a couple of years now. I would have never guessed that Nico would be the answer to my prayers, but he is exactly it. He is a very well behaved, well mannered Christian! He has older twin brothers and speaks fluent German as his mom is from Germany. His dad is a stay at home dad now as he has a rare form of leukemia that is uncurable, but controlled with medication. I am so happy Nico and Axel are such great friends and hope they continue to be friends throughout Elementary School.

Phoenix was a little sad that she wasn't allowed to sleep in the room with the boys, but she was happy in the morning to join them for breakfast and playing. After breakfast and a little indoor play everyone headed outside to the park. Nico even decided he wanted to play fall ball with Axel and now Nico and one of his older brothers will be playing baseball with Axel come this fall. Axel already has a sleep over scheduled at Nico's house on June 24th. The boys get along beautifully.

Here is a cute picture of the three of them waiting for Nico's mom to pick him up.

Axel had his swimathon yesterday. He was a bit nervous going in, but came out with a smile bigger than you can picture. He was so proud of himself. He did a whopping 25 laps! This is way more than he has ever done and way more than any of us expected. We are so proud of him for giving his all. Today he had swim team pictures and tomorrow is a big day with the last day of school and the Giants baseball game in San Francisco. Hopefully, I will be able to start going to some events so I can get some photos of these great memories! Until next time.....

Hit and Pitch

 The kids love to play "hit and pitch" with the wiffle balls. Axel has such a great stance and swing now.

He can slug it pretty far.

 Phoenix can now hit the ball from being tossed in the air. Our tee unfortunately found its last day at one of our baseball games when it was ripped in half. It is so much fun to see Phoenix loving what Axel does. The super cute thing is she calls the catcher, "home pitch". We enjoyed an hour of this last weekend while Rubix and I watched from the grass.

Axel came over to say hello while Phoenix was playing. Rubix loves to watch the two of them play. Sometimes I think that he gets over stimulated watching them run around and play.

 Axel is becoming more and more of a helper and a man. He can now take in two bins instead of just one at a time.

 On Thursday evening we had Axel's baseball party in our park. We grilled some food and ordered pizza for the kids (except Axel of course). They enjoyed getting their yearbooks, trophies, awards and playing.

 Here is a cute picture of Axel saying hello to Rubix before leaving for school yesterday.

Phoenix looks like she is giving up her nap. She only took 2 naps last week (at daycare only) and this week she continues to not nap at home. It doesn't matter if she gets a ton of physical or mental activity she still won't sleep for me. We have now transitioned into quiet time. This week she has done a great job of staying in her room for the entire hour. I now put a piece of paper under her door when her hour is up. That way if she is sleeping she won't be disturbed. Unfortunately, I always hear her playing, but have to keep my word and place the paper under the door rather than opening the door. Last night while putting her to sleep I realized how much brighter the her new room is than her previous two rooms. I made her room super dark by placing a towel over the bathroom window and a dark blanket over the bedroom window and she took a great nap. She also slept 12 hours last night by putting her to sleep an hour early. 

Although Phoenix sleeps is improving Rubix is having another bad spell. I am at my wits end with what to do. I am so incredibly tired. I think most of his issues are related to his stomach. His eating gets shorter and then his sleeping gets shorter and it becomes a vicious cycle. Keith and I just decided it might be best for the entire family if I put him on the prescription formula. I rather do that then put him on reflux medication that won't help his food sensitivities or his gut heal. I will have to work hard to get him on the bottle. I gave up trying the bottle because I was trying to put him on a schedule, but that is not working because every few days he struggles for 3 to 4 days with his stomach which causes him to not eat well. He struggles with pain which then decreases his ability to sleep. It is so frustrating how there are no books on how to sleep train a child with Reflux and food sensitivities. The good thing is he is healthy and growing and has a great mellow personality.

Phoenix has been taking more interest in Rubix and has been very sweet to him. Today she asked to hold him for the first time. Here is a cute picture of her pointing to the camera telling him to smile. She was laughing because he was so big and heavy she couldn't keep him upright. 

 Axel continues to love to build and create structures and things. Today he designed his own circuit and couldn't wait to show me and daddy. Daddy was luckily on his first rehab bike ride alone since we started rehabing him on the bike 2 weeks ago so I took a picture for him.

 Here is a cute video of Rubix looking at Phoenix and talking.

 I don't know why, but I love this picture and had to include it.

I got down the bumbo chair earlier this week. Rubix is not quite ready for it at 10 weeks. You can see the strain on his neck muscles. I think in another couple of weeks it will come in good use. 

 I found both kids being silly in the bumbo chair. It is hard to believe my 7 year old can still fit in it! Cute photos of my three kiddos though!

We have just 7 days of school left with 4 of them being short/early release days. Summer is here with a big bang as we have an entire week of 90 degree weather ahead of us. The bad thing is our AC is not working and we can't get it fixed until Friday! We are looking forward to our appointment with the Geneticist on Thursday. Hopefully we will have some answers as to what the extra copies of chromosome 8 mean. The good thing is Rubix's ultrasound on his head was normal and his head is only big because he is big. Wish us luck on getting transitioned to the bottle and getting through this heat spell with a newborn that needs to be swaddled without air conditioning!

Rubix is 2 months, Axel swims and Phoenix's new room

I realized that I wasn't taking very many pictures so I made an effort to take some of Rubix playing late last week. He is really starting to change now. He is becoming more aware of his surroundings and his wake cycles are becoming longer. He can track objects side to side and overhead. Apparently tracking overhead is an advanced skill according to the doctor. He is also having more control of his arms and is now regularly sucking on his fingers and reaching out and touching objects.

 He is starting to learn how to put himself to sleep for naps and bedtime, but we are a long way to go before he is completely independent. The good thing is we have started to learn this very important skill and I see hope for the near future :)

 Last Friday Phoenix went to Pump it Up for her friend Brooklyn's 3rd birthday. It was an impromptu party during an open jump. Finally a mom who is honest and smart with money. She didn't want to spend $400 on a party so instead she paid $60 for 5 girls to jump during an open jump. There were only 2 other kids there besides the 5 girls from daycare. They all had a terrific time and none of them knew that it wasn't an official party.

Phoenix loves to jump and climb. You can see how good of a climber she is in these two pictures. 

 Here is the birthday girl, her mom and Phoenix. Alana was kind enough to go down the slide with Phoenix since I had Rubix asleep in the carrier and couldn't go.

 Rubix turned 2 months on Sunday, May 15th. I was afraid I wasn't going to be able to get any photos of him so just incase I snapped a picture of him sleeping.

 Luckily though, he had a good wake cycle after the nap above and I was able to capture another cute picture for his 2 month picture. His smile absolutely melts my heart!

 On Monday we went to Rubix's 2 month check up. Daddy took a vacation day and came with. We had plans to go for a bike "rehab" ride together after the appointment. Rubix was extremely tired since he was woken from his morning nap. The big guy measured 12 lbs, 3 oz, 23 and 3/4 inches and a head circumference just under 16 inches. His height and head are in the 80+ percentile and his weight was the 49th percentile. We have an ultrasound for Rubix's head next Tuesday because his head grew too big too fast. The doctor doesn't think anything is wrong, but is being very cautious because she is just one of those kinds of doctors. She thinks the huge jump is because he is growing rapidly in every direction. Keith and I think that he is fine, but I rather be safe than sorry, so I am more than happy to take him to the ultrasound appointment.

We finally got the results back from Rubix's genetic blood work. The good news is he does not have x-linked ichythiosis (we didn't think he had it, but wanted a definite confirmation.) The maybe bad news is that there was an incidental finding. Rubix has extra material of the 8th chromosome. Keith and I got our blood drawn so they can see if either of us carry extra chromosome 8. We have an appointment with the geneticist on June 2nd to go over our results and see what they think the prognosis is. We all think, hope and pray that it won't effect Rubix at all with development and that it really is nothing but an incidental finding.

Rubix had his first round of vaccinations. We had a really tough 12 hours afterwards. He had lots of pain and swelling in his leg and was very difficult to console and couldn't be put down for a nap. I totally forgot about vaccinations. Luckily, he was so sleepy from missing his morning nap that he slept for over an hour after getting home. Annika did have to hold him the entire time, but I am glad that the he didn't cry for her the entire time. It was really stressful for me to get him calm and I wouldn't want anyone else to have to deal with that.

 Axel continues to swim. He has swam with a pool buoy, all 4 strokes and the kick board. He can do a full 25 yard lap for all 4 strokes now. Tonight was the first time that he did the full 25 yards without stopping for the butterfly. Keith and I are so impressed with how much he is improving, exercising and seemingly enjoying himself.  Here he is with the pool buoy. I have never tried this. I can't imagine how hard it is to swim with only my arms and nothing else!

 Axel is still the same old funny guy that he has always been. Here is a cute video of Axel being Axel.

Axel had a game last night. It might be his last baseball game of the season as his season closer is this Saturday and there is 80% change of rain. It was 90 + degrees yesterday and we were all a bit uncomfortable. Annika came to the game to watch since it might rain on Saturday. Here is a picture of half naked Phoenix and Annika who were both overheated!

 Phoenix has really been struggling with her space and sleep. She hasn't gone to sleep easily now in over a week. We decided she needs her own room. Daddy and I surprised her last night with her very own room by decorating the guest room. She has been sleeping in here by choice over the past week so we thought we should just jump the gun and make it her own. She likes the idea of it, but when it came time for bed she still had a 30 minute tantrum. It was much better than the hour tantrum from the night before. Luckily, after both of these tantrums she slept through the night, unlike the multiple wakings she has been becoming accustomed to over the past month.

 She has been skipping naps a few times per week too, which makes night times even more difficult because she is overly tired. Luckily tonight she went to bed without a fight for the first time in over a month.

Axel is excited for us to reorganize his room. He is having his first sleep over on June 4th so we are all gearing up for this exciting event. With the school year coming to a close our schedules are action packed. I am hoping to really enjoy these last 8 weeks of my maternity leave. I am loving being home. I just wish I had more time in the day to get everything done!

Mother's Day 2016 and more

Rubix is 8 weeks old and time keeps on ticking way faster than I would like. Here is the little guy holding a rattle. He is starting to develop at a faster rate now. He can look at something and reach out and touch it. His tracking has improved and he will watch me all around the kitchen. He is also talking up a storm. He loves to mimic the work "Hi". He also says iiiiioooo and aaaagooo. He gets really excited when I say "Rubix did it!" or I repeat what he said. He is an extremely happy boy. 

 His routine/schedule is still erratic. I hope he settles into a more predictable routine soon. The good news is he has a 6 to 7 hour stretch of sleep at night. Last night it was from 6:30pm to 12:30am, but it could be from 9:30 pm to 4 am as well or any other time in between. His eating is just as erratic as his sleeping. Some days he eats 7 or 8 big meals (20-30 minutes), where other days I feel like he is snacking and only eats for 7 to 10 minutes up to 10 to 12 times total. He still cannot put himself to sleep if I lie him down wake, but he falls asleep within a minute or two if I put him in the ergo infant carrier. I know he has the potential to put himself to sleep because he does it during his long stretch of sleep at night. He makes lots of sounds and noises during the 6 hours, but always goes back to sleep until he is hungry. Oh, and he is sleeping in his crib every night until about 5 or 6 am until he decided he won't go back to sleep until he is next to Mommy. I am not going to complain though because he has come a long ways over the past 4 weeks.

With Annika's help, he is having a bottle a day. He seems to drink only 2 to 3 oz at a time, but I know he has the potential to drink more because it seems like he wants to eat an hour or so after being bottle fed. I think he is holding out knowing that I will feed him :)

This week at the library they had R2D2 and C-3PO so we made sure to get a picture of them for Daddy and Axel. Phoenix and I had an extra special story time because we were able to leave Rubix home with Annika. We were only gone for about 45 minutes, but it made a world of difference to have just Mommy Phoenix time.

Phoenix has made huge changes in her attitude and behavior. She is really starting to cooperate and learn that she can't have everything she wants when she wants it. By giving her lots of control with small every day decisions and having hard consequences that are unchangeable has really helped. It is so nice to have my sweet little girl back.

 Last week was teacher appreciation week. I had the privilege of helping out with making the classroom banner. It has been a long time since I have drawn anything. I am really proud of the guitars that I drew. I wasn't able to stay long enough to decorate them, but I was happy to contribute in a small way.

 When Phoenix wants to she has wonderful built in motherly skills. She was able to put Rubix to sleep by shhhing in his ear and rocking the pack and play.  Rubix is in love with Phoenix and loves to watch whatever she is doing. He stayed up the other day watching her jump and bounce and be silly. He stood and sat in my lap for 45 minutes just starring at Phoenix. He was having so much fun he squealed with delight. Here is a cute picture of the two lying in our bed.

 Phoenix continues to be a silly girl. She loves to laugh and play hard. I love her genuine love and zest for life.

Here is Rubix focusing on one of his toys he was touching.

 Here is Rubix looking at himself and reaching out and touching the cute little boy in the mirror!

 Axel still loves to invent, design and build. It doesn't matter what it is. He continues to swim and has made huge gains over the past couple of weeks. He is finally able to swim the full 25 yards of the pool doing freestyle. He even did it twice yesterday at swim practice. The coach loves having him on the team because he is one of two children who listen and follow instructions very well. The coach hopes it rubs off on the other kids. He has now been introduced to all 4 strokes with breast stroke being the newest. It is hard to believe school is out 4 weeks from today. The school year went by way too quickly. Even though Axel has been having a rough spell with his emotions and feelings, it still blows my mind how much he has changed and how mature he can be.

This week Axel was so mad one night he starting hitting himself. This is never a good thing, but since then, after having a heart to heart he has been especially happy and mature. I can't imagine how hard it must be to be the oldest child. He is really struggling with his role, but is also learning the perks of being the oldest child. I pray that God really works in his heart this summer and that he is able to make good Christian friends at school, swim team, and/or church.

 For Mother's day I really wanted to ride my bike. Well God was amazing and answered my prayers once again. I fed Rubix just after 7am and I was able to get out the door at 7:45am. Annika came over at 8am to help with the kids and I was back before 9am. It was a short ride, but all that I could handle. It was my third time out and I rode harder than I wanted to afraid I was needed at home. I was greeted with a pumpkin "latte" (it was rice milk with no coffee), but I pretended it was a coffee drink and enjoyed it just the same.

 The kids wanted to get out with me on the bike so we went for a short ride. Here is Phoenix all ready to go.

 Here is Axel and I.

 The three of us riding up the hill.

 Axel has really improved in his strength. He is able to power up the hill. He did it twice the other day.

 After our short bike ride and a shower we headed to Walnut Creek to meet Gma Susan and Gpa Brian.

 We enjoyed a lovely meal together. It was really nice to see my mom on Mother's Day. I can't remember the last time I was able to celebrate with her.

 Gpa Brian brought down a sampling of a pig he purchased. He is using a new butcher and decided that he would give us some pork chops, bacon and Italian sausage to see what we think. We have already tried the pork chops and they were great. I think next year instead of just getting a lamb, we will have to get a pig and part of a cow. I love having the fresh meat. It taste so much better than what you buy in the store!

 I feel very blessed for our family of five and our immediate and extended family. I was really sad to see that all of the other cousins decided to stop blogging because I really enjoy knowing what is going on in their lives. I do this blog because I have a horrible memory and I want the kids (and myself) to remember their childhood. I also think it is nice for other family members who want to read or see pictures to have a place to do so. Well in my sadness I was pleasantly surprised to see when I logged in to blog today that the Webbs decided to start blogging again. So rest assured for those who care that I plan on writing this blog as long as I can so that the kids and I can enjoy their every day happenings whether good or bad. Until next time.... God Bless!