Axel turns 11, Spring Break, 3 weeks down and 4 weeks to go- Shelter in Place

Our neighborhood, along with many neighborhoods around the country have placed teddy bears and rainbows in their windows to bring smiles to those who are walking. The kids made a big rainbow and placed Phoenix's big pink teddy bear that G'ma Sonia made her when she was a baby in the front window. The funny thing is after 3 weeks of shelter in place people are much less friendly then they were a few days after shelter in place. As one neighbor put it...depression, worry and anxiety have now set in and the joys of being home are no longer.

On a more positive note, we had a fabulous week, as the kids were on Spring break. Having a week to just hang out and not do school work, is exactly what the kids needed. Us adults liked the decreased pressure of work and home schooling.

 The kids and I have worked hard on our Sunflower Friendship Garden. When we are done planting and Axel has his video complete I will make sure to post it. I am not sure how he is going to edit them and put the videos together, but the kid is way more tech savy then myself. As he said, "What, you haven't been using any of these features on your phone?" Apparently, my phone has hyperspace and slow slow mo, and other features I had no idea it could do in real time.  Here is one picture, to give you a sneak peak.


Rubix is still fun and adventurous. On Monday, I was wondering why he was so quiet. When I found him, he said, "Look Mommy, I can do this!" "Take a picture."

 Because Spring pictures were scheduled for the day after school closed we decided to do Spring pictures during Spring break. I wasn't able to work on Monday because of a security scare at work, so it worked out perfect for us to work on our sunflower garden and take Spring pictures. I hope to order these from Shutterfly soon so I have pictures to place on the wall.

 I have placed two of each child on here so you can print the one out you like best. I thought the outfits the kids picked out were fun.

 Axel picked the location in front of our Maple tree. Phoenix said, "We have a Maple tree? Where is the maple syrup?"

 Overall, I do think the kids have gotten along quite well. They have moments like these that are completely blissful.

 I do hope that they will cherish these moments, days and weeks together. Most of the week they played wonderfully together. It was a lovely change from all of the jealousy and sibling rivalry.

 Both Axel and Phoenix can be so nurturing and loving at times. Here is Axel comforting Rubix.

Here is Axel playing catch with Rubix. 

   Phoenix and Rubix have actually been playing a lot of baseball with daddy the past weekend. Here is  video of each child hitting the ball. 

Phoenix especially enjoys teaching Rubix. She has spent hours this week working with him. Axel has also worked with Rubix this week on his work as well. It has been a great help, as I have been busy with video visits/patient care and Keith has been busy with work as well. 

If you look closely in the picture you can see that Rubix has something attached to his shirt. Rubix is a very deep sleeper. He has actually never had a dry night in his life. We tried 2 weeks of waking him up about 4 or 5 months ago. We then tried 2 weeks again after he turned 4. I then purchased a "pee alarm" that would wake him when he starts peeing. He only used it for one night and then the two following nights he would only wear it for the first waking and then he didn't want to wear it anymore. I didn't have the heart to force him so I quickly ordered more diapers. I only ordered 44 pullups though. I told him that I hope he is ready when these run out and that he will be willing to try again. It is tough on everyone having him wake 3 to 4 times per night. The kid literally pees every 3 hours. This is even after stopping all liquids at 6 pm. Rubix literally has the worlds smallest bladder (inherited from me) and his dad's ability to sleep deeply. 

 On Tuesday, Axel turned 11!!! Axel requested pumpkin scones for his birthday breakfast. Here he is enjoying his scone and pumpkin drink.

 It was a beautiful day and a nice change in weather. The kids had fun after lunch playing basketball/ fun shots game.

 Our neighbor actually dropped off puzzles on our front porch. The kids had fun building their puzzles (although Axel is still working on his 500 piece puzzle), while I finished up with my patient care and Daddy got his exercise in.

 At 4 pm, Axel's Google Hangout Party started. Apparently, they didn't hang out very long. One of his 10 friends decided they should play "Moo Moo." At 5 pm the kids sang Happy Birthday to him and then he ended up playing Minecraft for another couple of hours with his best buddies.

 It wasn't exactly what we had in mind, but Axel and his friends enjoyed the "time together".

 Axel has been running with Daddy every other day since they can no longer swim together. They are alternating between running the mile or 4 x 400's or 2.5 mile trail run. He ran his fastest mile yet at 7:44 pace the other day. His pace on his longer runs seems to be close to 8:30's. I had to run with him the other day and I just couldn't keep up after riding my bike. I had to let him go so that I could run with him the last mile home, where we have to cross Quito Road. I was smiling from ear to ear, a proud parent.

My mom sent masks for us and friends who inquired about them. The kids have not left the house, except for bike rides so they haven't needed them, until this week with all of the art projects. I just had to get pictures of the kids with their masks on. I thought they were so cute!

 Adorable, right?

 This weekend it was a rainy weekend. Anytime there was a dry moment the kids were outside. Daddy cut down some rivets. The kids happily played with them. Axel used his carving skills and took off the bark to make walking sticks and "linkin logs" for Phoenix's fairy garden.

 It was extremely fun to see the kids having fun being kids.

 I also caught the kids playing in the Guava tree. As worried as I was that one of them was going to fall out, I was extremely happy to see them in the tree. I loved climbing trees when I was younger and I just love when they do normal kid things. Yesterday was the biggest day of them just being kids I have ever seen their entire life. This is exactly why we have this opportunity to shelter in place. To get back to the basics. To get used to being families. To have the opportunity to get bored enough to figure out how to play with what you have. I am so excited to see how the kids are going to grow into better people because of this pandemic.

 Here is another moment of the sweet moments between the kiddos.

 Rubix joining in the cuddle fun.

 The kids continue to have weekly play dates with their best buddies. Phoenix typically hangouts with Caitlyn and Nicole. Caitlyn read a book to them. Nicole played the piano and Phoenix read her friends jokes. Axel mostly hangs out with Joel, playing Pokemon or IO games. He still plays Minecraft with Kristen his couple of hours per week. Today Rubix got to have a virtual playdate with his old friend Daniel. He was oh so very excited. Daniel just got home a couple of weeks ago from Brazil. He came home on the very last possible day before all travel was banned. He just finished his 14 days of isolation with his Papa who he went with and luckily they are both healthy and happy to be home.

I am excited to celebrate Jesus' resurrection this weekend. We have been enjoying online church together the past 3 weeks. It has been another amazing blessing to be together for church. This weekend I hope we will get to enjoy both Good Friday and Easter Sunday church services. We will also have a new edition Easter egg hunt around the entire perimeter of our house instead of the park. Check back soon for more blessings in the Szolusha household.

Live's a changing as Rubix turns 4, learns to ride a bike and we learn how to home school during covid-19 pandemic

It is amazing to think how different life was a month ago when I last posted. I had planned on posting sooner, but right after I sat for the orthopedic speciality board the Covid- 19 pandemic hit Silicon Valley hard. Our schools closed on March 13th. Keith called me after picking up the kids early from school once he was notified that a parent of a non student employee was diagnosed with the virus in the upper school. Keith started working from home on the 11th and his work asked all employees to work from home starting from March 14th through March 31st.

Since then, Kaiser has gone to all virtual care for non critical patients and Santa Clara County has gone to mandatory shelter in place requiring all residents to stay at home through April 7th. We have been transitioning to life at home, work at home, school at home. I think this first week was successful. The kids managed to get into a pretty good routine and get all of their work done. Axel was able to attend all of his zoom meetings. Phoenix will start a daily morning zoom meeting with her home room teacher as well. Her language arts teacher and home room teacher sent nice 1 minute videos telling Phoenix how much they miss her and good job on her submitted work.

In the weeks before all of this ciaos Mr. Rubix earned his alphabet crown at school. This means he can recognize all of the letters and knows all of the sounds of the letters. He also had to know the long and short vowel sounds of the vowels. He worked really hard for this and we practiced at home. This was a very proud moment for him.

 Another amazing milestone is him deciding to ride the 16 inch bike. It literally took him hopping on it and then he rode off. Of course, he couldn't stop or start on his own, but he could ride. Within 4 days he could start and stop on his own. He is now quite skilled only a couple of weeks later. Since we are home he rides about 2 miles twice a day or about 40 to 60 minutes a day. He is absolutely hooked!

 Marshall Lane was a great place to learn and practice starting and stopping. We regularly use the parking lot, but we no longer use the blacktop or play ground as there was a confirmed case at Marshall Lane and it was recommended to avoid this area.

 Phoenix has become quite skilled on her bike as well and can now hop the curb. She is also quite the climber and loves to play on the monkey bars. She is missing them as we have not been now for a couple of weeks.

 You can see from this picture, Rubix was wanting to ride after school when he first learned on March 3rd.

 A little fun fact of parenting an almost preteen. When we were in Hawaii we noticed Axel had some changes on his toes which looked like fungus. When we asked him how long it has been there, he said months. Well it is taking forever to get better. We have had to change medication per doctors orders because it wasn't improving with typical treatment. We are hopeful it will be gone in the next 4 to 6 weeks with the new medication.

 On March 7th a lovely surprise came to my door. My dad and Sonia sent this lovely bouquet of flowers to say congratulations for sitting for the orthopedic boards the day before. It was the hardest thing I have done in my adult life. Studying for roughly 8 months and taking the 7 hour test, along with managing work and family took discipline and sacrifice from the entire family. The day of the test I had to patiently wait over an hour to start the test. Most people who know me, know I am not the most patient person. It was extremely nerve racking, but I am extremely grateful to have the opportunity to sit for the boards despite the beginning of the covid-19 ciaos. Luckily, the day life seemed to be put on hold for everyone was the last day all tests were administered, March 14th. I am so glad everyone who took the time to prepare for the test was able to sit for it.

 With the test in the books and Spring approaching came spring cleaning. We went up stairs and I cleared out bags and bags of clothes and boxes of toys. Here Rubix is happily displaying new clothes we found 'upstairs". He loves Axel's old boxer briefs, "tall socks", and pj's.

 Here is where all of the kids stuff was. They put up old curtains and put out blankets, pillows and stuffed animals. Phoenix also put up art work that she worked hard to create just for their new fort.

 We also cleared out Phoenix's room and closet. Because of this we were able to reorganize her room completely. I just love how clean and organized it is now.

 I am so proud of her for getting rid of a lot of toys and clothes in order to make this happen.

 Although, we had to cancel Rubix's birthday party we tried to make it the best we could. He turned 4 on March 15th. Here he is enjoying his pancake birthday breakfast.

Birthday present time!

 Mommy, "It says Rubix, "r", "u","b", "i", "x"."

 Phoenix also did a very sweet thing and gave Rubix a car he has wanted since the day she got it a year ago. She also wrote him a nice birthday card. It was a very thoughtful and generous thing to give him something he wanted so much.

 It was a gloomy kind of day but we still managed to go for a rain ride. I am so proud of him for dressing appropriately. He has finally matured to the point of wearing pants, long sleeves, gloves and jackets.

 We also managed a nice walk later in the day.

 Afterwards we had dinner and cupcakes.

 We ended the day with a movie we purchased from Amazon prime. I think it was called the Dragon Slayer. It was cute, but still too scary for Rubix.

 Here is a cute picture of Rubix and Phoenix a few nights ago after making a magnetile tower they were proud of.

 I thought this was also a cute picture of Daddy showing A and P the Stephen Colbret show about social distances and the coronavirus.

 I thought it might be nice to show some pictures of what this week looked like. We started school around 8 or 830 am every day. Daddy taught Phoenix math, while I worked with Rubix on math and his worksheets. After an hour Rubix used my phone to work on some apps while I worked with Phoenix on Language arts and Science. Rubix would last about 45 minutes and then get bored. He would either join Phoenix or go play. Axel was pretty independent and just followed his curriculum until I called him for lunch at noon. After lunch we would have recess for an hour or longer. We would then go back inside and finish social studies, art, music, character development or whatever other work Phoenix had. Here is an example of language arts writing assignment Thursday.

Today's assignment was to correct and improve he paragraph. 

Here is an example of science work. 

 For Axel, I only helped him by taking pictures of his work and emailing it to him to upload to the appropriate google drive or document.

 This picture was taken the morning after school closures. Rubix was so excited he couldn't wait to start working on his worksheets.

 Here is a picture of him working hard after breakfast every morning this week. He can now spell and write Rubix Szolusha. So proud of him!

 Here is Axel playing an alphabet game with him after his classwork earlier this week.

 Phoenix working on math.

Phoenix watching her videos about goats before writing her informative writing paragraph. 

  

 Rubix on the ABC mouse app. while I was working with Phoenix.

 Axel being his studious self. If you didn't notice, all three kids are in their rooms. This was the best way to keep them all on task, which means a lot of walking from room to room trying to make sure all three of them are on task. For P.E. Axel has been running with daddy this week. He ran 2 miles one day in under 20 minutes. He ran an 8 minute flat mile today. Axel had a handful of zoom meetings for class work this week. Next week he should have several every day. He also had fun video chats with friends this week. We will be planning his virtual birthday party tomorrow as his Escape room party has been canceled/ postponed.

We hope all of our friends and family are safe. We miss you all very much. Know we are thinking about all of you and love you.