Happy 4th of July, Daddy's Birthday and more!

Our computer has been finding all kinds of ways to make our lives more difficult. After over a  2 week debacle we finally have a video card that allows Axel to play Mind Craft and I can finally download pictures from my phone again. Since I last posted we have had an amazing couple of week. Before I get started on why I think it has been amazing I thought I would share a typical night at the dinner table before Daddy is home. 

Here is Phoenix "eating dinner". I don't know what has been troubling her stomach, but she hasn't been herself and she hasn't been eating very well. So instead of eating she is making cards for everyone. As you can see the cards consist of a piece of paper folded down the middle and one sticker placed nicely in the middle of the paper.

 Now Axel has never really been a good eater, but he has been eating better since he has been on the Neocate Junior. I thought the picture below was cute because he is so much like me when it comes to reading books. He has to finish the book and can't put it down until it is finished. The conversation went something like this. "Axel would you like to eat and read at the same time, or would you like me to take away the book." Axel's response was no rewords but him figuring out how to put his plate in front of the book.

 As for Rubix, he is not "eating" at the dinner table, but he has finally started joining us since I have the high chair set up for him. Phoenix wasn't very happy giving up her seat, but Rubix is extremely happy to join us!

 I love this picture of Phoenix playing at the pool. Her friend Noe was being a bit hot/cold so she decided she can play on the teeter totter by herself.

 On the 4th of July we had a low key day since the pool was closed and I was still very focused on attending to Rubix's sleeping needs. We did manage to go for a family bike ride to Marshall Lane to look at the new building and construction.

 Our first entire family selfie.

 My boys!

 Rubix has changed so much over the past few weeks. Keith and I are very excited at how much he engages with his surroundings now. I feel the transformation that has occurred is a miracle and feel extremely blessed that the really hard days are behind us. Rubix has a wonderful temperament. He is a very happy, easy-going child. I think he is going to be a gentle giant. This picture of him hugging Mr. Fox, his lovey, shows this warm loving side of his.


Rubix can now tolerate tummy time. He sits well in his high chair with a little support on each side and he just started playing in the exersaucer. He loves to stand and can roll over from front to back easily on the left and with a struggle on the right side.

 Rubix hit a growth spurt starting on July 9th. For the past two days he has consumed 32 and 30 oz and today he took five 4 oz bottles and two 5 oz bottles in the night. He is still waking every 5 hours or twice a night, but his naps are finally consolidating. He has taken a 2 hour and a 3 hour nap over the past couple of days. He woke for a feeding in the middle of the nap, but once he is able to consistently take in more at each meal I know he will be able to do these long naps without waking. Today he only took an hour and 15 minute nap for his long nap, but that is still a huge improvement over what he was doing just a couple of weeks ago.

 Louis continues to find his way into every possible cozy spot in the couch. I am a little frustrated of dealing with his hair everywhere, but at the same time I know that he doesn't have much longer left and I want him to be comfortable and happy.

Daddy turned 41 on Friday the 8th. All he wanted for his birthday was to spend time with his family. He took the day off of work to take the kids to their swim lessons, went for a bike ride up highway 9 and then took us out to The Secret Life of Pets (minus Rubix). It was a great day. Phoenix did well and managed to stay for 95% of the movie. She has had some sleeping issues again since watching the movie because it was a little scary. I hope she goes through this phase a bit faster than Axel so we can all sleep better at night!

On Sunday the 10th we went to Auntie's house for a fun visit with Grandma Susan and the Jolleys. Phoenix typically only naps a couple of times per week. This is her on the way home at 4:40 in the afternoon. She was all tuckered out. You can also see Rubix sleeping in the car as well. It is so nice to have sleeping children for car rides!

Phoenix has continued her swim lessons the past two weeks. She has been overall better with less tears and refusals. She hasn't made any huge strides, but seems to be a little bit more comfortable with all of the skills she learned from her previous two weeks of swim lessons.

Here is her star fish!

and her jump into the pool!

Axel continues to take private lessons. He has been focusing on back stroke and his start. Here he is doing a dry land warm up for his back stroke start.

And here he is in the water with his back stroke start. I had no idea how hard the start was until this week when he learned he has to keep his feet high, 90 degrees at his knees and elbow, keep him butt out and head back. I am so proud of how hard he is trying.

I will end the blog with a cute picture of Phoenix and Rubix. This was right before nap time yesterday.

We are excited to see Grandma Sonia and Grandpa Bruce and look forward to some fun filled days so check back soon!

Our Little swimmers

Rubix continues to make strides in all aspects of his life. His personality continues to blossom. He is definitely appearing to be a gentle giant. He is a quiet happy baby when he is not in pain. He still has episodes of pain and crying, but they are becoming less of the norm and more of a rare occurrence. 

The biggest change since he has been on Neocate for almost 2 weeks is that he is finally pooping more often. We went 3 days apart, then 5 days a part, then 3 days and then the next day, which was yesterday!

We visited the GI specialist this past Wednesday. He weighed in at 14 lbs and 4.6 oz and 25 inches, which is right on track of the 50%ile. Although his calorie intact is 25% less than it should be for his size they are happy with his growth. We had to start Zantac because his acid reflux became worse on the Neocate, but now that he has been on it for just over a week he seems to be doing better again. In order to get him to consume 27 to 28 oz I slightly increased the concentration by mixing the Necoate with less water which helps him get the calories in. I am also thinking it helps thicken it up a bit more which will hopefully help with the reflux as well. He is still waking 2 times at night and taking 4 naps a day that are about an hour each. He is much easier to put to sleep and more often then not I can pop the binkie in once or twice and he will fall asleep. Maybe once or twice a day I will have to walk him for 5 minutes or so. Night time is still difficult because he doesn't eat much during the day so it can take over 2 hours to get him to bed because he cluster feeds. His body can't take in more than 3 oz during the day and he likes to get in 8 oz before his long 5 hour stretch at night, which means he will take in 3 oz at 5:30ish, 6:30ish and then a couple more around 7:30 or 8. I am hoping that will change over the next month to one big bottle.

On Tuesday night we celebrated my birthday with an ice cream cake. Axel tried lactaid ice cream for the first time and did well with no stomach issues, despite the corn syrup in it. I started Axel on Neocate Junior with prebiotics because he has been throwing up 2 to 3 times a week again. His calorie intake has been less than ideal for how much more active he has become. I told Keith I want to try the Neocate Junior for him for one year to see if there is a big difference in his growth and ability to handle foods. I figure with the extra calories, the prebiotic and the probiotics he is taking something good has to come out of it!

This picture wasn't the greatest, but I was happy to have all three kids up and in relatively good moods for the time being. Phoenix had a major melt down an hour before this picture, but somehow was able to pull through for the rest of the evening.

I haven't mentioned Louis in awhile. He continues to suffer from severe arthritis in his back. It is hard to figure out if his back causes his hips and legs to hurt or if they are a separate entity. I have become very laid back with where I allow Louis because I feel so bad for the fellow. He loves to go into the pinball room in the morning and lie right where the sun is beaming in. On this particular day he was in heaven because Phoenix left her couch right in the sun's path. So cute!

Axel had his first swim meet last weekend. He did 5 events and improved in his times all the while having a great time with his friends. Based on advice from other parents and after talking about needing a wagon for over a year I finally went and purchased the collapsible wagon and pop up shade half tent from Costco. Here the kids are taking it for a test ride around the house.

Instead of posting a video of Axel at his swim meet I decided to post a video of him during his private lessons. Phoenix and I surprised Axel by showing up at his swim meet for his last two events. We left Rubix at home with Annika. It was really hot out and close to Pheeny's nap time so we were in and out as soon as he was done with his last event. When Axel tries to go fast his form really breaks down so I wanted to show off how much his form has improved. This video below is during the last 5 minutes of his 30 minute lesson so it isn't as good as it can be because of the fatigue factor, but overall Keith and I are incredibly proud of how far he has come over the past couple of months. He has had 4 private lessons to work on his free style form and he has 3 more lessons to work on his backstroke.

Phoenix just finished 2 weeks of lessons and came extremely far in her ability. She cried and cried the first week. This past week, not only did she not cry she also was able to complete every skill except swimming for 5 strokes from the steps to the instructor. She can float front and back, kick front and back, climb out of the pool, jump into the pool and submerge her head under the water. I was really worried that she wasn't going to finish the two weeks, but she not only finished she is now signed up for 2 more weeks! Go Phoenix!

Other big news is that Rubix is now sitting in the high chair. It was a bit of an issue for Phoenix to give up the high chair, but it is really nice to have Rubix at eye level while we are eating or while I am in the kitchen rather than having him in the swing or on the floor.

It is hard to believe, but I only have 2 more week until I go back to work. We have Keith's birthday and a visit from Grandma Sonia and Grandpa Bruce so it should be a fun filled 2 weeks!

Rubix is 3 months, Happy Father's Day and times are a-changing!

Rubix turned 3 months on Wednesday June 15th. He is overall a very happy boy. We have had a rough month, but things are finally on the up and up. He loves bath time. I think it is one of his favorite times of day. 

 He absolutely loves looking outside and being outside. I think it is how the Lord programmed us. We are attracted to light. Jesus is the light of this world and it is in us to love and serve him.

 Over the past couple of weeks Phoenix magically learned how to draw. She watched Axel draw and then decided that she wanted to draw too.

She was very excited that her people were looking more real. I think Axel was about the same age when he drew me on the chalk board and it looked like a person rather than scribble.

 Phoenix loves being a princess. Since Elsa had her hair in a french braid she thinks french braids are for Princesses. She asks me for princess hair and will tell me if she wants one or two. On this particular day she wanted two princess hairs.

 Phoenix is a hoot. She is as silly as they come. She loves to make people laugh. She loves to ride her push bike. Yesterday she rode all the way to the farmer's market with daddy and Axel and all the way home through West Valley College.

 Here are a few cute pictures of Rubix on Wednesday. It appears that he is doing an incredible amount of changing and growing over the past week. On Saturday the 11th I went cold turkey with nursing and gave him only the bottle. He was drinking full bottles by Monday. On Tuesday I started adding a 1/2 an ounce of Neocate. Today he is drinking 75% Neocate in each bottle. It has been a challenging 10 days with ups and downs. Daddy was sick last weekend and Rubix and I came down with a milder form of the stomach bug this weekend. Both of our mild fevers are better and he drank 28 ounces yesterday after only having about 18 ounces the previous two days.

 Since we transitioned to the bottle his sleep has been really good at times. He had one night that he only woke once between 9 pm and 7 in the morning. Since then it appears his bed time is going to be around 7pm and his awake time will be around 7am. Last night he woke twice at midnight and 4 am. He went down for the final time at 8 pm and woke at 7:30ish. I am hoping the more his stomach heals the better his sleep will be. We did have a bad night the night of the virus,which is understandable. He woke every 2 hours and took almost 45 minutes to get back to sleep so I was quite exhausted yesterday and slept/rested every chance I got.

 Normally I have to walk Rubix to get him to sleep. I was regularly walking 5 miles a day considering he naps 4 to 5 times per day and including bed time. He was sleeping no more than 45 minutes at a time and sometimes would have to be held the entire time to stay asleep. Now he is falling asleep within a few minutes of walking so I can walk him around the house a few times and don't have to go outside for a half a mile walk. For three naps out of the day I can put him down first try and he stays asleep. His naps appear to be stretching to almost an hour which is also great progress. The biggest change is this morning he woke for the first time without crying! This means he is finally not overly tired. He has also woken from a few naps over the past few days without crying. I have so much hope for Rubix! I am getting really excited for how Rubix progresses over the next 4 weeks before I go back to work.

 The other big news is today he took the Binkie/ Pacifier for the first time. He was arching backwards in lots of discomfort so I decided to put him down and tried the binkie and to my surprise he took it. I walked away and checked on him 10 minutes later and he was asleep. Praise the Lord! Now it didn't work as easily for the nap I just put him down for, but I still feel it is progress in the right direction.

 Rubix can now reach for objects and bring objects to his face.

His grip is not very strong so he can't pull down Mr. Elephant on his own just yet, but with my assistance he was able to grab and pull him to his mouth. It is so exciting because he wasn't getting much play time over the past month because he was in such a bad place with not eating or sleeping well. He is still spitting up a bunch, but it is clear rather than chunky curdled milk. I remember it taking a few weeks for Pheeny's stomach to heal on the Neocate as well. 

Daddy has been staying home to help out with the kiddos and to help heal his leg and shoulder more quickly. On Friday Daddy and the kids went for a bike ride, had a tea party, played in the park and went to the pool!

This morning we were able to get outside for more park play. Since Rubix has been sleeping and eating better he also has better awake times. His awake times are now 60 to 90 minutes rather than 30 to 45 minutes. I was able to get a cute picture of the three kiddos and myself.

 I was also able to get a cute picture of Axel and Phoenix. Axel had a great Report card. His math is on track for first grade. His reading level is from 2nd grade 9th month to 4th grade 2nd month. His swimming is improving so much. He now doesn't need to hold on during the entire swim practice. He has been doing full laps consistently now for almost two weeks. He is really loving the swimming.

This afternoon we went to the pool as a family! Rubix was able to join us in the big pool. He was so tired he ended up sleeping an hour for his last nap without a fuss. The last nap is always the hardest of the day. We had a great father's day and feel so blessed for this life and each other. We hope everyone had a great day celebrating the men in their life. Happy Father's Day!

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.....