Rubix is 10 months old!

The long week of rain finally stopped, but before heading to the park for the first time we decided to have one more play day inside. I promised Phoenix that we would go back to the Merry Go Round in the mall. This time I captured her in her new girly sneakers. 

Rubix played inside the kiddy area for this first time. He had so much fun. Axel and Phoenix are really great with him, when they want to be, that is :)

Rubix continues to grow like a weed. Keith thinks that he is an inch taller than he was last month based on the way his pants are fitting. It is hard for me to tell, but what I do notice is he is stronger and more and more sturdy every day. He cruises along furniture, he pushes objects to walk a few feet, he climbs up stairs, goes down slides, pulls himself up onto furniture with his hands and hangs from the table and drawers of his dresser. He is an active little guy.

On Saturday we went to Aisha's 4th birthday party. She turned 4 on Christmas day and this is the first birthday party she has had for her friends. Phoenix had a blast. It was a little out of control and stressful for me because Rubix had to be watched like a hawk because he was getting trampled by the other kids. Here is a cute picture of the birthday girl and Angela from daycare. The other moms noted how all of the kids still flock to her despite not being at her house. 

Phoenix had a unicorn painted on her face and had a blast playing with all of her friends from day care.

The kiddos continue to love books. Here is a common scene of Phoenix reading to herself on her bed. I love how she makes up the story based on the pictures that she sees.

Here is Axel reading one of the chapter books that Phoenix picked out. This is a common scene where he is suppose to be going to bed but he gets side tracked and just stands there reading wherever he might be in the house. It is a problem that I love having and hope to never get rid of. It is such a blessing how much they both love books. I tried to capture a picture of his new star wars Lego underwear that he loves. 

Yesterday Rubix turned 10 months. He has so much personality. He is really starting to show interest in more and more things. He can say off, on, mama, dada, brabra, hi. He loves to turn the light switch off and on. He loves to read books. He loves to explore and chew on everything as every other baby also enjoys doing. 

He loves playing on play structures. He climbs the stairs and then slides down the slide over and over again. He loves to swing like Phoenix does.

He loves to ride in toy cars and loves to try to get on any type of bike that he comes across. He gets really frustrated when he can't do something and lets everyone know by screeching or crying. He is eating bananas, blueberries, spinach, beets, carrots, sweet potatoes, apples, and just started the prescription cereal again that is rice based. He loves his milk (neocate and drinks 4 to 5 bottles a day still, between 5 and 7 oz at a time.

We had a fun play date yesterday with Zoe and Jade and a little girl named Lara, who is a daughter of one of daddy's coworkers. We went on a Cub Scout hike this morning and have another birthday party today. I will post pictures next week of that along with Phoenix's 4 year pictures and birthday party. This month is action packed so we are trying to hold on and enjoy the ride.

I leave you with two cute videos of Rubix. One where he is pushing the music table and another where he is dancing and being his cute self. Enjoy!

Axel's Pinewood Derby car, the Auto Show and more

Rubix is becoming more and more verbal. If you look closely at this picture you can see the veins in his neck as he is screaming in delight. He is starting to repeat words like "off, on, bye, hi", etc. it is so much fun to see his little mind grow. 

I pulled out the tunnel for the first time for Rubix. I don't know why I haven't thought of it earlier. He was a little hesitant, but became brave after watching Axel and Phoenix go through. Axel is getting big enough where it is hard for him to fit as easily as he use to.

 Axel and Daddy spent two weeks working on making his Pinewood Derby car. We are lucky to have nice neighbors who let us borrow all of their awesome tools and equipment. Here Axel is using the drill press to make a hole for his weights.

 We had to improvise with goggles since we don't have any proper protective eye wear.

 Axel is sanding his axles for his wheels. He had a lot of fun working on this and learning a new craft, although it was a little stressful overall.

After several hours of work Axel was excited to finally test out his car in the hallway. It was ready just in time to go to the Auto Show in San Jose this past Saturday. The Boy Scouts of America were there with a track for the kids to test the cars and each scout and one parent received free admission into the Auto Show. Daddy had to attend tryouts for the entire morning since he is a manager. Axel decided it was okay if I took him so after he had his tryouts in the dumping rain we headed to the Auto Show.  

We tested out his car a couple of times, but he didn't seem very excited so we decided to head into the Auto Show. Here is a cute picture of Axel in front of one of the cars. I managed to sew a couple of his patches on with the sewing machine. I have learned it takes a lot of patience to sew in circles! I would have never guessed in a million years that Keith would be using power tools and I would be sewing! It is amazing what we do as parents for our children!

 Axel and Phoenix continue to love books. I caught Axel reading to Phoenix before bed a few nights ago. He is such a sweet big brother.

 Rubix has really taken to his lovey Mr. Giraffe. For the past 2 or more weeks he is always hugging or holding onto Giraffe when I feed him in the middle of the night or when I get him in the morning. It is the cutest thing!

 Phoenix really needed new shoes so we went to Westgate mall to get new shoes. She had been  complaining about her shoes hurting her feet. I rummaged through the attic and brought down a pair of Axel's old shoes and made her try them on. She looked at me and said, "I can't wear those." I asked her why and she just said, "I can't!" I laughed. She is such a girly girl. I told her I will buy her a new pair, but that she had to wear Axel's old shoes to the park and in the mud. She agreed. Although I didn't manage to snap a picture of her in her new shoes, I did manage to take a picture of our little detour on her favorite Merry Go Round before we purchased her new pink sparkly sneakers.

 Rubix loves the wagon as much as the other two love the wagon. Here is a cute picture of Phoenix pushing Rubix around the house.

 Rubix also loves bananas. He grunts and crawls up to anyone who opens a banana hoping to get a bite or two for himself. Axel is always kind enough to share his banana.

 Just after my last post before the New Year we all went to the bank to open Rubix's own savings account. We opened his a little earlier than the other two since he received money for his college fund for Christmas. The horse he received was Mike. Now all three kiddos have a Wells Fargo horse and a savings account!

 We have had rain storm after rain storm. It has been really good for our state, but difficult to get use to. This weekend was still busy despite the rain, but we did have a little down time Sunday morning where the kiddos got to play together in the pinball room and Axel got to play in the rain.

 The other two watched from the window. Phoenix thought she wanted to join Axel, but changed her mind when she discovered she was going to get soaking wet.

 Phoenix has made a big leap in her reading interests and is now into chapter books. She loves anything with princes or princesses in it and the Kingdom of Wrenly and Nancy Clancy are right up on her lists of favorite chapter books. We have ready through almost the entire series of the Kingdom of Wrenly over the past couple of weeks. We are looking forward to birthday parties and play dates this weekend as well as Rubix turning 10 months! Check back soon for a Rubix update and Phoenix update as she turns 4 years old! We also want to wish Grandpa Paul a very happy 69th birthday as well!

Merry Christmas! (Rubix's 1st Burley ride and 2nd tooth)

We had a wonderful Christmas despite the busy schedule. I have a lot of pictures here and not a lot of time so this will be brief. Here is the finished product of the gingerbread house this year. The kids were very pleased with their creation. I did not help at all this year. Axel was able to man the frosting and Phoenix and him worked very well together in deciding where all of the decorations go. 

On Friday the 23rd, Rubix went for his first Burley ride. We used the double Burley which will be good for Phoenix and him, but he is still a little small for riding in it alone. 

He was all smiles despite leaning the entire short ride. 

Phoenix still struggles to figure out if she wants to be a big girl or a baby. She chose to be a big girl and ride her bike.

The great thing I learned is that Rubix and Phoenix can safely make the 1 mile bike ride to daycare, which means that I can start riding my bike to work!

Louis continues to find places he can curl up and fall asleep in. He is doing this more and more lately.

The kids worked on a fun craft on Friday as well. They are saying Santa's workshop!

On Christmas Eve the kiddos opened one gift each. Axel wasn't surprised to see Elf pj's again. However, he was surprised to see Mommy and Daddy get into Elf pajamas.  Daddy brought them home when he went out shopping about a week or two after we purchased these for the kids.

We tried to get a family photo but without a nice camera and stand we had to do Daddy and kids and then Mommy and kid photos.

The boys!

Mommy and kiddos!

Christmas Eve Santa brought a new LED star topper since the last one he brought was a lemon and didn't really work well at all. We lucked out and had everything done just after 10 pm! I was excited to get to bed by 10:30 since Christmas was going to be a long day.

Christmas morning we had pumpkin drinks and opened stockings and then enjoyed our pumpkin oatmeal. Once breakfast was over we headed to the pinball room for the main event! Phoenix received a baby doll crib from Santa. (Grandma Sonia and Grandpa Bruce were very generous and bought the kiddos a portable baby grand piano keyboard set. It has been the biggest hit and all of the kids are excited to learn to play.)

Daddy received the hat rack he has been talking about for years and....

a poem that Axel wrote him on construction paper that he cut out as the shape of his hand.

Merry Christmas!
Christmas is a jolly time of year, when everybody is happy.
With Christmas bells ringing and everybody singing, la, la, la.
Lights on all the Christmas trees and no bees on the trees.
IT IS CHRISTMAS!

Daddy Santa bought Mommy a Window Pro Surface 4. Yeah for Mommy!

And Axel received the Millennium Falcon.

Rubix received books and toys that he loved. It is amazing that he is just like Axel and loves books from the time he was just a wee little thing!

I love this shot of the three kiddos. One because I can't believe I was able to get them all in one photo and two because they are all playing with Rubix's new baby toys!

Let's not forget Louis and his new Yoda sweater!

After opening presents we quickly got ready and headed to Sacramento. We had a couple of delays with the worst delay being Phoenix throwing up everywhere! Here are Axel, Braylin and Phoenix watching a Dora movie while Daddy washed Pheeny's outfit. We were all hoping to head to great Grandma/pa Burgesses house, but had to wait for Phoenix to get something to wear. She ended up wearing Braylin's dress because her clothes weren't drying quickly enough.

I included two pictures we took with great Grandpa/ma Burgess. One where Phoenix is walking away saying "no", and one without her.

We had a lovely time visiting the Burgess', Great Aunt Cindy and Uncle Terry and Great Uncle Barry and Aunt Cora as well.

After visiting with them we got back to Grandma Susan's house just in time to start dinner as Grandma Susan and Grandpa Brian were on their way home from the hospital. Grandpa Brian had another one of his scares and wanted to get his heart fully checked out. Luckily, his heart passed test after test and now they are still trying to figure out what is causing his chest pressure. Grandma Susan loved her calendar as usual. It is nice that all of the Grandparents enjoy receiving the calendars each year.

Rubix received $100 for his college fund. I will take it, he said!

Axel played hang-man with Auntie and Uncle and loved stumping them on his word choice (I am not sure if they were real words or not :) )

I tried to get a picture of the girls, but they didn't sit still long enough. I thought this one was a cute one of Braylin though. Grandma made the mini mouse ear headbands.

Here is a picture of Phoenix enjoying the piano. I have lots of picture of Axel and Rubix too, but still need to download them.

Yesterday we went to see SING! We had planed this since we saw A Secret Life of Pets for Daddy's birthday. It was a very cute movie and we highly recommend it.

Rubix's second tooth started popping through just after I wrote the last blog. He is almost back to his old schedule, but we are still struggling since getting back from Florida. He is finally eating solids again and drinking 4 out of the 5 bottles he use to drink. He is handling blueberries and maybe pumpkin (it looked like he was going to throw up yesterday after the second day of pumpkin, but everything stayed down). We are hopeful that we can get him sleeping through the night in the next week or two and up to 3 meals a day over the next month.