Mega Blog: Blue and Gold Dinner, Daddy/LT wins article award, Baseball begins!

So much has happened since my last post. We were frantically getting estimates to get tree service as one of our Eucalyptus trees was cracked and at high risk of falling, our Internet service went out again, my best friend from high school, Tiffany visited, Axel had his Blue and Gold dinner for Cub Scouts and we had Opening Day for baseball. 

I will start where we left off. Axel had president's week off of school. On Thursday we went to a "special" story time at the library. I thought it was going to be a special guest who sings, but instead it was one of the librarians dressed up as a giant bee.  The kids were taught how bees are really important for the environment and had special songs and stories devoted to the topic of bees. The kids were able to do a special arts and crafts and make their own bee antennae hats and little bees with tissue wings after the songs and books. The surprise Bee came at the end for a photo op, where most reacted like Rubix did in this picture. Axel was a great big brother to both Phoenix and Rubix helping with the art project and photo.

After the library Tiffany and her two kiddos came over. Her husband Cliff had some business in San Francisco and they tagged along to visit friends. It was such a nice treat to have her over for the afternoon. They have another few years left in Seattle before they can move back to the Bay Area. It will be nice when they do.

The kids get along wonderfully. Axel and Avery were like two peas in a pod. Phoenix and Charlotte played princesses and we all had a wonderful visit!

On Friday Daddy suggested I take the kids out for pancakes. What a grand idea! The kids loved their pancakes and Mommy loved her spinach omelet! The best thing of all was we came home to a clean house as we went while the cleaners were busy cleaning!

Here is Rubix, enjoying exploring Mimi's.

 The kids still love the park. They are often creating. Here is one creation they worked several days on.

On the 26th of February Axel had his Blue and Gold Dinner. Here they boys are receiving their badges. 

And, saying the their oath.

A quick picture of Daddy and Rubix.

 Each Den put on a couple of short skits for entertainment. Axel was Chief Yaputcha, which led into him leading everyone in the Hokey Pokey, Ya put cha right leg in, etc. It was very cute.

 Here is Axel as a volunteer in an older Den's skit. He loves acting and performing and this picture captures his enjoyment.

 The Pack members came together for a fun little game while the Pack leader talked with the parents. Rubix and I had to take off for home as he was very tired, but Daddy, Axel and Phoenix stayed for yummy cake.

Here are a few of the boys with the cake. 

Over the past few weeks Rubix continues to work on his walking. Here is a cute video of him.

Rubix also continues to love balls and throwing. Here is a cute picture of him and Daddy.

On March 1st Daddy went to L.A. to receive an award for an article that he wrote about one of his parts. It was a very exciting day and night for him. We were really proud of him and surprised him Thursday night when he got home with cookies and banners. 

The kids were going to do one banner, but Phoenix worked on the banner while Axel was at school and Axel had his own vision, so....

He made one himself.

Also on the 2nd of March, Phoenix got to see her best buddy Macey at story time. The two of them are very cute together. 

Thursdays are extra special now because Phoenix gets to see Macey at baseball practice. Here is a picture of Phoenix at practice. 

The weather has been off and on raining still and quite cold at times. I love this picture of Rubix from last week. Yes, I thought it was that cold out!

 On March 4th, Opening Ceremonies started bright and early. We had to leave the house by 8:15am. Keith captured a typical picture of us trying to get out the door. All three kids usually need help of some kind.

 Here are the two Szolushas hyped about the start of baseball!

 Lets not forget Rubix!

Macey and Phoenix 

 Axel and the Angels saying the Pledge of Allegiance

 Phoenix and Macey

 The Indians

 We played right after Opening Ceremony. Here is Phoenix waiting for her first time at bat.

 Love the photo!

 Look at her smile!

 Running home with Coach Mommy!

 Our first t-ball game was against non other than Kevin Youkalis and his wife Julie Brady (yes, Tom Brady's sister). In this picture you can see Julie is walking toward their younger son with their older son to her right.

 Here is a video of Phoenix hitting.

After Pheeny's game the kids came home to eat lunch and watch our tree get cut down. It was very exciting!

 Axel headed to his game while we stayed behind for Rubix to take his nap. The day was successful as the tree was safely taken down, although we lost Internet, and both kids had fun at their first games of the season.

Rubix, Phoenix and I were able to see Axel's last three innings of his first game.

 It was an action packed, fun filled day. The entire family slept well last Saturday night. We finally got Internet restored yesterday and tomorrow we look forward to another fun filled day as the kids have another game and get their Little League photos taken. Phoenix is also signed up for preschool. It was a close call as we caught the second to last spot left. I was so preoccupied with the yard and tree, that I almost missed the window. We are also excited as Annika is back for the week for Spring break, just in time to celebrate Rubix's 1 year birthday with us.

 Speaking of the little guy, I leave you with a funny photo of him a couple of nights ago. Daddy brought the balls in after practice, instead of leaving them in the garage. Rubix took off after them instead of coming with me for bath time. By the time I got his towel he had half of the bucket empty as he picked up one ball after another and threw them. So much fun!

Happy Valentine's Day and Rubix turns 11 months

I attempted to do this on Wednesday, but our internet has been hit and miss since our modem died. We borrowed a modem until we could get high speed uverse internet installed this Friday. It took them 2 days to get the connection correct because of the weather effecting the signals from the local AT&T box. We then had to wait for AT&T to make their system upgrade and now we finally have internet again. 

Now onto the fun stuff. Daddy and the kiddos made Valentine's Day a sweet one by surprising me with flowers, balloons and chocolate covered almonds. Mommy and the kids surprised Daddy with a giant chocolate chip cookie and a heart felt card.

As you can see from the picture no one could wait to try the cookie. We all ate up our orzo and lamb balls in less than 10 minutes flat in order to get to the yummy desert! Rubix loves balloons and Phoenix and him "fought" over the balloons although there was one for each of them. Phoenix couldn't decide which one she wanted and Rubix just wanted one so it was a little back and forth until they were both happy!

Here is the beautiful bouquet of flowers the family surprised me with. They are still holding on strong almost a week later.

On Wednesday Rubix turned 11 months! He is such a joy. I tried to capture a photo or two of him before work, but this guy is quick! Out of the 10 or 15 pictures I took, this was the only one that wasn't blurry. He absolutely loves to play ball. If an object is round he thinks it is meant to be thrown. This morning I was eating berries with my french toast. He was being very vocal. Finally I let him reach on my plate and he picked up a blueberry and said "da" (which is ball in Rubix language). He then proceeded to through the ball/blueberry. Soooo cute! He also says, up, off and on very consistently as well. If a light is off in a room he says on and then wants to go turn the light switch on. I need to get a video of it because it is sooo cute!

He is eating up a storm. There hasn't been any foods, knock on wood, that he has reacted to over the past month. He is eating almost all fruits and vegetables and wheat, rice and oats, as well as beef and beans. He is getting the hang of chewing and loves to feed himself. He really wants to eat what we are eating so as he becomes a more skilled chewer and more teeth come in we hope to have him on a regular diet over the next few months.

He is drinking only 20 to 24 oz of formula. We are getting excited to transition him to cows milk soon. We only have 3 more weeks before we introduce dairy and start saving $300 dollars a month. The great thing about the Neocate is that it did the trick and he likely won't have to deal with food allergies from here on out. Rubix started getting his top front teeth. The top right started to break through his gums on Wednesday and is still trying to break all the way through. The left tooth looks like it will be poking through any day now as well. Rubix has slept through the night a dozen times in his life. He just did 4 out of 5 days, 11 to 12 hours straight. Last night he woke at 4:30am for a bottle though, but I think he is hitting another growth spurt. I am looking forward to him sleeping through the night every night in the very near future.

After work on Wednesday the kids wanted to play outside because it was a nice, rain free day. Rubix played ball while Axel and Phoenix played with chalk.

The kids did this for 45 minutes before it got dark and Daddy arrived home from work.

Phoenix is getting better and better at the alphabet, writing her name and letter recognition. It is amazing at how quickly things can change with a little practice.

Axel was star student of the week this past week. He still wants to be an architect and his favorite food is an egg burrito. He brought in pictures of his trophies to share with his classmates and his Star wars encyclopedia. He has started to become a little more defiant so we have had to crack down on his behavior. It is really sad that his environment at school and cub scouts isn't better. He has 6 ADHD kids in class and a Den that has not been well organized and the Den Leader lets the kids run around wild. I will be taking him to the next Den meeting and pulling him out if his starts to do what the other kids do. It is difficult because most parents drop their children off and the Den Leader didn't set down rules at the beginning of the year. It is very hard to teach your child that it is not acceptable to act out just because his friends are. The same thing goes with his classmates. The teacher has not set down the rules that you must stay seated and pay attention and now the kids get up and roam and worst of all Axel does the same and thinks it is okay to ignore the teacher. We have a tough few months to whip him back into shape and get him to respect all adults, especially if he gets accepted to Harker. We find out on March 17th at 5pm if he is accepted or not.

Because of the rain I often have to put Rubix and Phoenix in the stroller together to stay dry. Here is a cute picture of the two from Friday. It was quite a downpour and our rain jackets were drenched. Rubix was happy regardless because he just likes to be outside. Phoenix really doesn't like to get wet and really doesn't appreciate the rain as you can see in the picture. 

 On Saturday Axel asked me to do something for him. I really needed to get Rubix down for a nap so he kindly read books to him while I did what he asked for. I love seeing moments like these with all three kids loving on each other.

 On Saturday night we met Gma Susan, Gpa Brian and Auntie/ Uncle for dinner in Walnut Creek. Gma and Gpa just got back from New Orleans and brought gifts for the kids. Axel has beads on and Braylin and Phoenix have lovely head bands on.

 We all enjoyed a nice dinner and then headed back to Auntie's house for playtime and bath time.

 I love this picture of Auntie walking Rubix to the bath. I just wish it wasn't blurry. We picked up our pig from Gpa Brian while we were there as well. He had the perfect cuts of meat made for us. We have lots of yummy pork chops, bacon, ribs, ham steaks and ground pork that will easily last us the entire year. We are having pork chops tonight with one of Axel's teammates and we had delicious bacon this morning!

 I will leave you with a funny photo of Axel and Phoenix. They decided to give each other massages. Phoenix apparently gives back massages with her feet!

We are hoping the rain will end soon. Not that we mind it, but we are really hoping there will be no more catastrophic events like the huge land slide that took out a huge chunk of Skyline road. There are so many houses up in the hills and on our local mountains that are not built for flooding.  If the deep down clay continues to get saturated more roads and homes are just going to slip and fall right off the mountain. We are hoping and praying that this won't happen and that we can start to benefit from being drought free!

Tie Dye Hair and Cruising Rubix

Rubix is such a joy to parent. He is a determined, funny little guy. He loves books just like Phoenix and Axel. Maybe it was all of the reading that I did while he was in the womb that made him come out loving books. Here he is enjoying a book in his little "hideout" behind his rocker next to his dresser/changing table.

The kids received hair crayons for Christmas. They love expressing themselves and here are the two enjoying their rainbow hair.

Axel managed to put his mohawk up and everything. The crayons wash out very easily so I don't mind the kids using them. The rule is that they have to wash their hair before bed. Sometimes that is a deterrent for Axel, but Phoenix doesn't mind washing her hair and taking baths multiple days in a row.

Rubix's new favorite toy is the wagon. He is pushing it or in it for hours a day.

He is in heaven regardless if he is pushing it or in it.

He has such a great sense of humor too. We all love hearing him laugh. Here Phoenix is being silly in order to make him laugh.

On Monday night when I was making soup I caught Rubix inside the cabinet. Like brother like brother, Axel and Rubix loved/love playing in the cabinets. It is funny to me how different they are in size, but how they have many parallel similarities as babies. 

Here is a picture of Rubix standing, playing in the wagon.

Phoenix has come a long way in the past couple of weeks. She is recognizing more and more of the alphabet. She can almost spell her name now without any help. I am excited to see how much her mind grows over the next 6 months before preschool starts.

With the rain I have had to squeeze in tiny bits of exercise. In desperation I have had to jog pushing Rubix and Phoenix in the stroller together for a quick couple of miles. The two weigh over 50 pounds and the rolling route makes the 2.5 miles an exhausting one, but I am grateful there is a horse along the way that the kids get to enjoy and that I have been able to get any exercise in. This is a cute picture from yesterday after school. Axel is photo bombing what was a cute picture of the two little ones, but Phoenix decided to refuse to look at the camera when she noticed I was taking the picture.

Axel's classmate turned 8 yesterday so Alex and Axel are enjoying their cookie after school.

After the yummy cookie the kids wanted to stay and play since it was the first time all week without rain. Axel is such a sweet brother and loves to help out with Rubix and play with him whenever he can.

Rubix loves going outside and always wants to be apart of the action if someone leaves the house. Here Rubix is trying to leave after Daddy and Axel left for the district Pinewood Derby race this morning.

Here are most of the cars that were in the District Pinewood Derby today.

The track was much different. It was 6 feet shorter and only had 3 tracks and was wooden! It was 1.5 seconds shorter/faster. The lane on the right was the fast lane. Axel won on that lane, came in 2nd in the middle lane and was 3rd on the left lane. He got about the same time as most cars. The winners were .2 seconds faster so it was a much closer race. It was a long morning, but it was a good experience for Axel. We think he enjoyed himself and will want to try to go to Districts again next year.

After watching over an hour of racing Phoenix needed to climb the rocks outside of the Mountain store. Rubix was a trooper, but was excited to get home and play himself. Axel also had his first baseball practice today. From what I heard it went really well and he has a good group of kids on his team. I am excited to see Axel's skills and maturity continue to improve over the next few months.

If the rain holds off Phoenix should have her first tball practice this Thursday or Saturday. Rubix turns 11 months on Wednesday, the kids are looking forward to giving their Valentine's to their friends and next Saturday we meet up with Grandma Susan and Gpa Brian for dinner to get our pig!

Here is a video of Axel winning his heat.

Here is a video of Rubix walking.

Winter... (Phoenix stats and Axel molars)

It has been an amazing winter here with rain like we haven't seen in years. Every natural waterfall is streaming with water for the past several weeks. Here is one that we see all of the time riding up Bohlman. Keith decided to take the kids to see it while I rode up it this past weekend. On the way down we stopped by our friend's house and saw their beautifully new built home and amazing views. 

We had 5 days of no rain over last weekend and the beginning of this week. We made sure to get some park play in.

The parks have been very empty even on the non rain days because it is cold and wet outside still. On the 26th Phoenix had her 4 year check up. She past her vision and hearing test and weighed in at 30.6 lbs which puts her in the double digits for overall percentile. She was 40 inches or 56th percentile for height. She had a couple of booster shots which was an interesting experience. She was screaming in fear before the shots were even administered. I had to use all of my strength to hold her still. It is amazing at how much children change based on their experiences. I do hope that she grows out of this fearful stage quickly!

I often don't have opportunities to take pictures with all three kiddos in it. Phoenix and Rubix were really enjoying playing with Alfie. Axel wanted to chime in, but luckily he left the two little ones alone to enjoy some learning and music. 

 I think I posted a picture of Axel climbing this tree before, but I am still impressed that he is enjoying such "boyish" things like this. Keith and I have waited years to see him be a "normal" playful child.

Rubix had 5 out of 6 amazing nights where he slept through the night (11 or 12 hours straight). This happened to correlate around when Louis passed. I was very grateful for the extra rest, but I have been shocked at the awful rebound in the other direction with him coming down with his second virus. He had a little cold with congestion and coughing that led to 3 very difficult nights with 3 wakings a night and one night where he had to fall asleep on me because he was so uncomfortable. Over the past week we have gotten back down to one waking a night. I am hoping that we can get back to sleeping through the night, but it is always difficult getting in enough calories during the day for some reason or other. The good news is he continues to do well with new foods, which reminds me that we did allergy testing on the 24th and both Rubix and Axel are allergy free! Rubix is not completely out of the clear because we tested him at such a young age that he can still develop the gastrointestinal (Alpha Pi) allergies if we aren't careful. I am very hopeful the introduction of food will continually be successful. The bummer thing about what we discovered is that he really needs to be on the Rantidine. We were off of it for 3 days and by the 4th day he was vomiting and gurgling. Now that he has been back on it for nearly a week he is back to normal.

 We enjoyed the park today during a break in the rain. It is amazing what a little outdoor time can do!

 The kids enjoyed an hour of play before the rain started. We brought a towel to dry off the slides and swings and with the sun peaking out through the clouds we are all refreshed and ready for the next few more days of rain.

 Axel took his entrance exam to Harker. He did very well. We have been busy submitting the paper work for the application process, but it is finally complete. We also have to finish our taxes and have that submitted by next Monday! Now it is a wait game and we just have to wait and see if this is truly God's plan for Axel. In the meantime he is finally getting his first "big molars". Apparently the dentist says most kids get them around 6 and then the 2nd molars come around 12. It is funny how Rubix and Axel are teething together :) despite being 7 years apart.

We are gearing up for baseball! First practice is tomorrow! Axel is on the Angels this year. Phoenix's t-ball team is still in limbo and we will find out more during the next week. Until next time......