Carnival, Pizza Party and Rubix eats!

On Saturday morning we went to see a pediatric GI specialist for Axel. We have managed to stay away for 6 years, but Axel's eating has really diminished this summer and he fell off his growth curve in weight. He has been throwing up since last summer. We ruled out anything series last summer/fall with the full blood work, but have been frustrated with his continued issues with food. His constant stomach pains and "shutting down" are difficult to watch as parents. We are excited to say that the GI doctor that we saw was wonderful. He knew exactly what could be going on and scheduled Axel for an endoscopy and colonoscopy. We are thinking about cancelling the colonoscopy portion of the procedure since it seems like more of a stomach issue than intestinal issue and the preparation for the colonoscopy requires a cleansing that would cause him to miss a second day of school. We will have to see what the doctor says and trust his recommendation.

After the doctors we headed to Daddy work, where his company held a carnival for the first time. It was a fun filled day with good food and entertainment.

 The kiddos played in bounce houses, slid down blow up slides and more!

 My favorite part of the day was getting to do the climbing wall with Axel. Axel did great for how tough the wall was. Daddy and I again, were excited that he wanted to try things that he has been afraid to do in the past.

I haven't climbed one of these things in years! I always have so much fun on the way up and then realize I am afraid of heights when I get up to the top and have to some how manage to muster up the courage to get down.

 We waited in line for 45 minutes to get this light saber and princess crown balloons. Rubix did great and after staying awake much longer than normal took a nap in the baby carrier.

 Although the kids did not get their face painted like they wanted it was a great afternoon of fun.

 We got home in just enough time to prepare the crusts for our pizza Olympic party. Axel invited Nico, Kedar, Jensen and Annika over for the pizza party. Here they are decorating their pizzas.

 I finally got a shot of Annika and Rubix. Annika has spent so much time with Rubix I needed to capture them together before she leaves next week. It will be really sad to say goodbye again, but we are excited for her next adventure as she studies abroad in Austria this coming semester.

 Here are the kiddos watching the 4 x 400 relay while enjoying their pizza.

 On Sunday morning I finally had time to have Rubix try the Neocate baby cereal. The GI doctor wants me to wait until he is 6 months to start solids, but it takes up to 4 weeks for babies to get use to the texture of foods and actually consume solids so I decided the Neocate baby cereal would be a good transition. This way I am hoping Rubix will actually consume the food that I start introducing when he turns 6 months in a few weeks.

   

 He had fun the first day and I think consumed a little bit of food. Yesterday and today was not as successful, but I am hopeful he will get use to it soon

 

.Rubix appears to be transitioning to two long naps a day that are about an hour and a half to two hours long. He is also transitioning to 5 oz bottles and only 5 or 6 feedings a day. He is still getting up once a night, but I am hopeful that he will be sleeping through the night in the next few months.

After breakfast we headed to Marshall Lane to check out the campus and see if it is ready for students. Phoenix has been under the weather still and didn't want to ride her bike. Here is the solution I came up with in order to make her happy and make it easier for me. It was a bit of a tight fit, but in the end worked out well. 

 After Marshall Lane we headed over to Annika's house for her birthday party. Phoenix brought Annika a birthday crown to wear.

 The kids played in the pool. Phoenix was in the hot tub, while Axel showed off all of his swimming strokes to Annika's family.

 Everyone was really impressed with our little swimmer.

 Axel and I are headed over to Marshall Lane now to see who is teacher is for second grade. Tomorrow is the big day for Axel. We will officially have a second grader!

Washington Trip and Rubix turns 5 months

We headed to visit the French Family on Thursday morning, August 11th. It is a nice quick flight of just over an hour. We were enjoying each others company by 11 am. Here is Daddy and Rubix playing in the play room. 

After lunch and inside play time the kids headed out for a trail walk and black berry picking. Phoenix enjoyed the berries much more than Axel, but fun was had by all. 

 The trail is covered with blackberry bushes. It was absolutely beautiful.

 I had to stay back because Rubix was catching up on sleep. Daddy was kind enough to bring me a bowl of yummy fresh blackberries.

Once Rubix woke we headed to a local park. A woman and her children painted rocks and hid them all around the park. Carter, Mason, Axel and Phoenix had a blast running around the park trying to find the painted rocks. 

We let the kids take home their favorite painted rocks and then asked them to hide the other rocks they had found. 

All three nights we were there the kids enjoyed watching the Olympics. Mason, who is in gymnastics always requested gymnastics, where Axel always requested to watch swimming. 

On day two the kids enjoyed playing in the sprinklers. Bella, their dog enjoyed it the most though!

In the afternoon everyone headed to the pool and more play time in the park. Axel wasn't feeling well so he mostly watched from the sidelines. 

On day three we headed to a local river to play. The kids had a blast. Apparently, this is one of Mason's and Carter's favorite places to go. 

Kaia and I had great fun catching up. It was so nice to see her. I love how our families get along so well. The kids played great the entire time, our husband's enjoy each others company. All in all it was a great trip. Maybe next time we can all go camping together!

Before we left for the airport on Sunday morning Rubix fell asleep in Andrew's arms. I tried keeping him awake just 30 minutes longer, but Rubix had other ideas. Rubix did amazingly well and slept like a champ the entire trip. He took two, 2+ hour naps a day when he was able to sleep in the pack and play. He is becoming more and more adaptable, which is great for how busy we are as a family.

Now that we are a family of five, I had the privilege of sitting alone with Rubix while daddy took care of the other two kiddos. Daddy is much more fun than I am. 

The kids had a great time with Daddy without any electronics or any other entertainment except Daddy himself.

So cute!

On Monday, August 15th, Rubix turned 5 months, on Grandpa Bruce's birthday. Since Axel hadn't been feeling and eating well he stayed home with Daddy and Annika. 

As a result, Daddy and Axel were in Rubix's 5 month photo shoot. After talking with Axel's doctor and allergist we have him on Zantac, Flonase and Claritine daily right now. He went from practically not eating all day to being able to tolerate 3 bland meals. We have an appointment with GI tomorrow morning. We hope to get more answers and a better plan at how to help Axel and his ever growing stomach /food issues. As of now it seems as if the severity of his outdoor allergies caused enough post nasal drip to irritate his stomach and create a gastritis like irritation. Hence for the above medication. 

Since we have come home Phoenix has now been running a fever of 101-102 degrees for the past 2 days. We went to the doctor yesterday because she also has been complaining of neck pain. Luckily, meningitis is ruled out. Hopefully, she will get better soon. The kids felt well enough this afternoon to go to Marshall Lane. Apparently, Axel has built up a tone of strength and confidence. He can now do the monkey bars and a bunch of other things he couldn't do before. He is super excited about starting 2nd grade next week and being on the big play ground with the 3rd, 4th and 5th graders. 

Can't wait to post on Axel's first day of second grade next week!

Fun, Busy Times

We have had so much fun since I last posted. We have been busy from sun up until sun down. These pictures are in reverse order so I will start with the past few days and work backwards. We were blessed with a visit from Grandma Susan! She came in on Wednesday night and left with us on Saturday for Braylin's birthday party. 

 On Thursday Axel and I learned how to sew!!!! Here is my first creation, a pillow case dress. Funny Axel had to try it on. The ribbon says Jesus Loves me and has rainbows on it. It is really cute.

 Grandma suggested I practice on the green pillow case before making the pretty princess dress with the pink pillow case. The only bummer was that the material was much harder to work with so instead of doing the dress completely by myself, Grandma had to swoop in and finish it for me since dinner time was approaching.

 Thursday night we went to the pool to watch Axel's last swim lesson. He worked on breast stroke while daddy and Phoenix had fun swimming too.

 Grandma and Rubix watched from the side lines as I took pictures and videos to help document what Axel should practice over the winter.

Friday was all about converting Axel's desk into a chess board. This was a long project, but we are very grateful for Grandma's hard work! We all hope it gets used!!!

 Friday night Keith and I went out to eat for our Anniversary since our 8 year anniversary is today, Monday, 8-8-16! We went to a new restaurant in downtown Saratoga, the Mint Leaf. It was an Asian infusion restaurant that doesn't sell liquor. On their website in really big letter is says BYOB or wine....no corking fees.

So we brought a couple of beers and enjoyed a lovely dinner. Here is a picture of what I thought was Keith capturing our meal, but he also snuck me in the picture. I was laughing with our very sweet server who was bringing Keith fresh hot chili peppers. Afterwords we headed home to make sure all of the kids made it to bed and to watch part of the opening ceremonies. Funny that 8 years previous on our wedding night, was also the night of opening ceremonies to the Beijing Olympics. 

 Before continuing onto Saturday and our fun filled time at Auntie's house for Braylin's 3rd birthday party I want to pause to brag about my cute little 4.5 month old. He continues to grow and thrive! He is reaching tons of milestones. He is rolling all over the place which has provided him with frustration and excitement. Luckily, he is getting over the frustration and is loving the ability to move more. He went from sleeping on his side for over a week to now sleeping on his stomach for the past few days. He can roll both directions now and works himself around the entire crib. His hand-eye coordination has really improved and he is able to crab and manipulate all kinds of objects. You can see in the picture that he is working on crabbing the bird and sometimes he can even push bird to the other side.
We all joke that he is starting to walk in the exersaucer because he can move it around by leaning forward. He is such a big guy and so tall he does this with ease. Phoenix walked in it as well, but Axel really didn't walk very much in it.
Rubix has now developed a pretty good schedule. He wakes around 7 am and takes a nap at around 9 am for about an hour, at 12 for about 2 hours and at 4 for about an hour. He goes to bed between 7 and 8 pm.
He eats 7 times a day for a total of 29 oz. He will drink a 5 oz bottle during the middle of the night and then 4 oz bottles throughout the day. He can go over 8 hours without eating during the night and the day he can eat as close as an hour apart or as far apart as 5 hours. It seems to me that when we are out and about his hunger doesn't register because he is taking in the surroundings. Luckily, his body allows him to catch up by taking feedings close together if for some reason a long period has gone by without a bottle. I hope it eating becomes more routine, but I am more than happy that his sleep is on a schedule. Here is a picture of the first time I saw him sleeping on his side. Soooo cute!

 On Saturday we headed to Auntie's house. Grandpa Brian met us there after picking up GG. Ryan's sister Shannon also came up with her kiddos. Grandpa Brian is great with Rubix and the grand kids. Here he is with Rubix.

 Auntie got as much of a baby fix as she could. She loves Rubix so much!

GG also got to spend some time with Rubix. He was a bit heavy for her, but she was able to hold him while sitting down. I think she looks great for her young 84 year old self!

 After the grandparents left the rest of us headed to the park.

Uncle Ryan gave me much needed relief by holding Rubix for me. Like I said, Rubix is a big guy. the almost 16 lbs puts my biceps and back into an over worked state after about 30 minutes of holding him :)

Axel and Lance had fun making tunnels in the sand. While the girls pretended to cook and make food.  We all had a great time and can't wait to get together with the cousins again soon!

 Braylin gave us some of her hand me down 3T clothes that were too small for her. Phoenix loves getting clothes no matter if they are new or old. The biggest hit were the pajamas and slippers. She wore one pair to bed and another the next day, despite me reminding her that they were not day time clothes.

 Yesterday we went to a fun pool party at Westgate Cabana club. Rubix did great and had a blast!

Axel and Phoenix also enjoyed themselves. It was a long party, but great fun for the entire family. Axel had over half of his 1st grade classmates there.

 Now if I back track to the previous weekend we had a fun filled night at Axel R's house on Saturday night. They put in "fake" grass. Doesn't it look beautiful? Their backyard is so fun! They have a tent suspended in the air and a zip line. They have a climbing wall, tight rope, soccer goals and more! Here is Rubix checking out the grass.

 The kids are enjoying the slip and slide with the extra cushion the artificial grass offers.

 As you can see Rubix loves watching the other kiddos play. I am not sure who gets more tired, him watching the kids or the kids playing!

 Also last weekend I had Axel make breakfast for us! I quickly threw the ingredients together and Axel patiently made 20 waffles while I was feeding and getting Rubix ready for the day. I was so proud of him. He is starting to mature more and more. Keith and I are looking forward to when he matures enough to no longer be bothered by Phoenix. He still gets so annoyed by her being a little sister. Since I was the annoying little sister I understand that she just wants attention, but he doesn't quite get it yet. They continue to either get along wonderfully, or be at each other's throats! With school starting in a couple of weeks there will be much less chances for them to fight which I am looking forward to.

 We are headed to Washington this week to see my friend Kaia and her family again. It should be a fun filled long weekend. I leave you with a cute picture of Axel and his big buddy and swim instructor Hanno. Hanno and the Westgate Gators really made our summer. He had his end of year party on Sunday the 31st. He got swimmer of the week and other awards for improving his times and having team spirit.  We are excited to see what the futures holds for our little Axel!