Pheonix is crawling!!!

It's official....Phoenix is a mover and a shaker. She has been showing the signs of crawling, and yesterday she put it all together. Granted it was slow and partially combined with the military crawl. I am sure,though, within just a few shorts weeks she will be zooming around the house. 

Today she wanted to practice sitting all day.  It is exciting to see her develop quickly. The only bummer thing about this stage, which we were sadly reminded about, is the falling/ hitting head stage. 

Yesterday was the excitement of what you see below and today was the reminder of the difficulty of letting Phoenix develop, but at the same time providing a safe environment for her. Both Keith and I will be excited to get past this falling stage, but for now we will try to enjoy the good parts of seeing all of Phoenix's firsts.

 I forgot to mention that I went cold turkey on the swaddling again on Thursday. We are at day 3 of no swaddle for naps and bed time. It is going a bit better, although she can take up to an hour to put herself asleep still. I hope she will develop new sleep associations soon and that I won't cave in and reswaddle her again :)

Axel continues to love school. The teachers are very impressed with how articulate he is and can't believe his vocabulary level. Both teachers have come up to me to tell me how much they love having Axel in their classroom. We are extremely proud of Axel and are excited for him as he begins the next chapter in his life.

 Axel has made his first friend at school named Ethan. Madison, Axel and Ethan eat lunch together and play together when they have their outside free play time. We went to a picnic party for parents and students last night and Axel did a great job of playing with all of the kids on the play structure without any hesitation. It is amazing to see him come out of his shell. It is like I have an entirely different child.

Tomorrow holds more adventures and Grandma Susan comes to visit at the end of next week so please check back soon!

Axel's first day of Preschool

Axel started Preschool at Marshall Lane Elementary where he will be attending Kindergarten next year. We signed him up for Mon, Wed, Friday from 8:15am-1:15pm. For his first day of school Keith and I arranged our schedule so that we could both take him. We were a little nervous at how he would do before we started the enrollment process. After enrolling him, attending parent orientation and then 'meet the teachers for the kids', we were sure he would be fine. He was really excited to be going to 'real' school. I had been calling daycare, school, since he was a baby. He realized over a year ago that he was going to daycare and not real school and he was looking forward to the day when he would be attending real school.

 The enrollment process was a bit pain staking for Keith and I because of Axel's skin and his allergies. There was a ton of paper work, medical release forms and prescriptions to get as well as special food for Axel, but with only a few hitches everything magically got done and Axel was able to attend school yesterday. We were extremely proud of Axel and both can't believe he has reached this milestone in his life.

 We live across the street from the elementary school so walking is the only real logical way to get there. Traffic backs up quite far on the roads leading to the school parking lots. Keith and I feel fortunate that we are just a 10 minute walk and don't have to deal with the ciaos of driving. We are also fortunate that his daycare provider will take him and pick him up on the days that I work.

 Axel had a great time yesterday and couldn't wait for Wednesday to arrive. He said he only made one friend, besides Madison, a girl that also attends his same daycare. Unfortunately, he couldn't remember his name, but plans on asking him again tomorrow.

Although I will miss seeing Axel's smiling face all day, I am excited about having a few hours alone with Phoenix almost every Friday. It will be great one on one time!

New Tricks, New Games, Birthday Party and Babies

The past week has been action packed as Phoenix is in the mist of achieving several milestones, and we were all waiting patiently for Auntie's baby to arrive. I packed up the swing for Auntie Shannon and put the exersaucer in its place. Phoenix knew exactly what to do. She immediately starting walking and playing with all of the fun toys. 

The exciting thing for Axel and I was setting up the electronic tree. We placed pictures inside the peek a boo section of Axel, Phoenix and myself and hunted around the house to find 4 AAA batteries. Phoenix isn't quite old enough to push the buttons on the one side, but today she was pulling on the green cloth that covers the pictures. To my surprise the tree talked back to Phoenix every time she pulled one of the cloths. The cloth over her picture said "mommy". The one over Axel's picture said "Daddy" and the one of my picture said "Baby". So cool!!! I had no idea it was interactive. Now I need to change the pictures so the words correlate with the pictures. I had never placed the batteries inside the tree when Axel used it years ago. Too bad because I think he would have loved the musical, interactive tree!

Phoenix absolutely lights up every time she sees Louis. She becomes very talkative and follows him with her eyes. Before our walk a couple of days ago she scooted right up to him and grabbed his lease, just like Axel use to when he was a baby. Today she even walked him holding onto his lease while I had her in the carrier. Axel use to love to do this as well.

Phoenix has been practicing all of the steps to crawling. She is rocking back and forth on her hands and knees.......

Pushing up into the plank/push up position....

and bringing her knees under her. She has sat up a couple of times from her stomach by pushing up and then bringing her left leg under her all the way until she is on her butt! The only bummer thing is today she discovered how to use her arms to pull herself forward on her stomach. This military crawl is what Axel started doing at 7 months and stuck with until he was a year. I am hoping she will still practice her pre-crawling skills so that she can quickly crawl on her hands and knees instead of just doing the military crawl. I think regular crawling will give her more freedom and independence to chase after Axel than the military crawl will. I know Axel got frustrated and went right to cruising.

Phoenix's sitting is also much better. I still get nervous that she will fall so I like to stay close to her or put the boppy pillow behind her to soften her fall backwards.

We picked up the game Operation this week. Keith and I have been talking about purchasing this for awhile. We both really enjoyed this when we were kids and Axel, no doubt, is starting to enjoy playing it as well.

Yesterday, while Phoenix was sleeping Axel and I built a cool house for his dinosaurs using his foam letters. I was really proud of our creation so I made him pose for a picture.

Yesterday evening we went to another birthday party. We weren't able to stay long because Phoenix has not been feeling well. She refused solids yesterday and threw up 3 times at the party. So after the third time, one hour into our visit, I told Keith and Axel that we needed to go after the breaking of the pinata. Axel had fun hitting the pinata, but wasn't very excited that he had to leave early. He met a young girl who he had a blast playing with and was bummed that he had to leave early.

Yesterday morning, Saturday, July 17th, Auntie's baby finally arrived around 1am. Braylin was a very healthy 8 lbs, 10 oz and 20.5 inches tall. Both Auntie and Braylin are doing great and were discharged this morning from the hospital. The 4 Szolushas, went up to Oakland this afternoon for a quick visit. Braylin is absolutely adorable and the Jolley's seem to be adjusting quite well to their new addition. Phoenix continues not to feel well and through up all over Auntie's house just before we left. We are hoping it is just a small stomach bug, but Keith and I both are skeptical and think she is having a reaction to the asparagus we started earlier this week. We think it is the food because she has had an eczema flare and green stools the past couple of days which is a sign that it is most likely a food she is reacting to. Our plan for this week is to do a couple of days of no solids and then try again with the foods she has been tolerating well since we initiated solids 1 month ago.

Axel starts preschool tomorrow morning. He is very excited, as are we. The preschool is very well organized and run and we are looking forward to seeing Axel grow socially and are optimistic that he will be stimulated academically as well. Check back soon for a post on Axel's first day!

New Tricks and Sad Goodbyes

It has been a busy, but lazy couple of weeks since our last post. I personally have been struggling with a long to do list, fatigue and sickness. When we returned from vacation we started Phoenix on solids and Axel was out of food. Lets just say that equated to hours and hours of cooking and baking to get both of the kids food made. Since then Phoenix has done well with the sweet potatoes, butternut squash, carrots, broccoli and most recently chicken! Next in line is asparagus and beets, which are already made. The first fruit will be cooked peaches, then pears, which I will make later this week. Axel finally has a bunch of food made for him, except tortillas, because he eats them up too quickly and they are labor intensive. So besides all of the food cooking, we have all recently come down with a mild summer cold and I am getting over a bout of gastritis from drinking too much wine :)

 A couple of weekends ago the weather was beautiful so we decided to do a family run to Baskin Robins. Phoenix enjoyed chewing on the spoon while Axel enjoyed his chocolate ice cream.

 The first of August we went to visit Auntie who is on maternity leave and patiently awaiting the arrival of baby Braylin.

 We enjoyed a trip to Fairy land and then went back to Auntie's house for lunch.

 Phoenix broke in a few of Braylin's toys and Axel had fun helping Phoenix figure out how to play with them.

 Phoenix has really developed physically over the past month. I mentioned she is rolling over both directions last time and pushing herself up, but now she is showing signs of getting ready to crawl. We are all excited to see Phoenix crawl and chase after her brother!

 She is still working on sitting and can sit for up to 10 minutes unsupported if  she is not distracted. She can still fall backwards so I like to make sure I place a pillow behind her or spot her.

We do a lot of laundry, as you may expect. Axel has always loved the laundry basket. To keep Phoenix from rolling everywhere I placed her in it, which renewed Axel's interest. We are now doing a lot of laundry basket rides around the house!

 This past week has been about the neighborhood kids playing together as much as possible. Every night they played for an hour just like most of last year. It has been sad that the boys really haven't played on a regular basis since the holidays last year and then the arrival of Phoenix and Nishka (Rishaan's sister) in January.

 Hema, Elisa and I tried to get as much chat time in together as well. (This is what led to the too much wine incident, but that is another story for another day :) )

 Here is a typical view of the kids playing and the parents talking!

 Rishaan and his family left for vacation on Wednesday so this is the last moment of all three kids together on Tuesday night.

 Axel was able to play with Max on Wednesday and Thursday night before Max and his family moved to Singapore. Here is a picture of Max, Sophia and Axel the night Max took off for the airport. We were able to help out with last minute packing.

 I feel so sad for Axel because I remember the feeling of having to move and leave friends. I never expected he would have the opposite problem and have to deal with the sadness of seeing all of his close friends move away from him. He is young enough and resilient enough that I am not sure if it has even phased him yet. He did great with Mason, his closest friend at daycare, moving in early July. I think when Rishaan's family moves in the next year or so and he doesn't have any neighborhood kids to play with, he will have a harder time with it. It is hard to predict the future though. I am glad he has had a year or two of good childhood memories playing with Max, Sophia and Rishaan.

 This past Friday we went to the Palo Alto Museum and Zoo again. He absolutely loves it there.

 It is cool to see him trying to figure out how everything works. He explained in detail where the tennis balls goes in this "self- power" exhibit.

 Axel has really become quite coordinated himself over the past couple of months. He is running and climbing as well as other kids his age now.

 He is also becoming more brave and doing things himself. It has been really fun to see this transformation.

 After talking with a friend about finger food and Phoenix's allergies, she sparked an idea to feed Phoenix chicken as a finger food. Phoenix and I were both happy because I know that she wants to experiment with feeding herself just as much as I want her to be able to feed herself.  I plan on doing this with a few more atypical foods for an infant since Phoenix will likely be "grain" free for up to 2 years.  Meats are low on the allergy list in case you were wondering why I chose chicken. I never use to think of meat as baby food, but now I don't think it is so weird after all :)

 Today we went to a birthday party and we have another next week. I hope to post a few pictures from these events next week. Until then, we will continue to try to cherish each moment, friend and loved one as much as we can!

Big Boy Axel!

From afraid to get into the big pool 2 years ago, to Mr. Fish! So much fun to see Axel grow and develop. 

Enjoy!

Phoenix is 6 months old!!!!

The week leading up to Phoenix's 6 month milestone on July 21st was action packed with new tricks and events. The most exciting event for Axel was sister starting solids on Thursday July 19th. Phoenix has shown interest in food for well over a month. Phoenix did great for her first meal of sweet potatoes/ yams. She was a little weirded out by the texture of having something besides milk or toys in her mouth but it didn't take her long to get the hang of eating. By Friday, she was consuming the entire ice cube of yams. Last night, Thursday the 25th she at 2 cubes for the first time. One cube of butternut squash and one cube of yams.

She fights me for the spoon so I often give in and give her a spoon and then get another spoon to continue to feed her with. I am really excited to add more foods and am hopeful that she will tolerate the low allergy foods well.

 As I mentioned in the last post she started showing the ability to sit without support. By Sunday the 21st, Phoenix starting sitting for 20-30 seconds without any support. She is currently sitting for up to a minute now! It is amazing to me how milestones seem to happen almost over night. I forgot to mentioned over the wedding weekend, we put together the world puzzle Keith received for his birthday during our down time. Annika and Marlena finished it on Saturday night while we were at the reception. It was a goal of ours to do the puzzle in 1 day and with team work we did it!

 Phoenix's hair is finally starting to come in again and grow longer.

 The bald spot on the back of her head is almost gone. I can't wait to see how she looks with long hair :) She looks like such a big girl in this picture sitting all by herself in her play gym.

Besides sitting she is also working on turning onto her stomach from her back towards the left. She has been turning on her stomach over her right side for weeks now, but just started practicing towards the left. She is extremely close, but hasn't fully turned on her stomach towards the left.

She has also come a long way in reaching, grabbing and pulling. She is able to easily grab her animals in her play gym and successfully pull them into her mouth. I can't believe how strong she is.

The last big new skill is she is starting to bring one knee/leg up under her while she is on her stomach. This is the first step to scooting and crawling. Although she isn't quite doing either skills she is able to get an object a foot or two away from her by lifting her butt into the air with her legs straight to propel herself forward. It is really cute!

She continues to babble and talk often. Her babble is becoming more word like with dada, aga, hi, yeah, aba, etc. She continues to squeal with delight and laughs often. Both Phoenix and Axel have the most contagious laugh that melts the hearts of all who hear :)

Phoenix is also becoming more coordinated. My friend Gwen loaned us a jumper that she has come to love. She is absolutely adorable jumping and laughing for joy!

Yesterday, July 25th I took Phoenix in for her 6 month check up. She weighed in at 14lbs and 4 oz, which kept her about the same at 14 percentile. The big news is that she measured 27 and a quarter inches which puts her at the 90th percentile! I knew she was in a growth spurt by her increased appetite the past week or so, but I had no idea she grew 2.5 inches in 2 months! Phoenix normally only consumes 20 oz per day and when she is in a growth spurt consumes 25 oz per day. It amazes me how much she can grow on such little food it seems. 

She is still getting up once a night to eat around midnight. The doctor said as soon as I get her on 2 meals a day and 16 oz of milk during the day I can take out the night time feeding. I can't wait!

We are also in the process of sleep training Axel again. We have been very accommodating because of his skin needs. Although he had started to sleep through the night a couple of times per week, his sleep took a turn for the worst during our vacation. I decided two nights ago that enough is enough. He needs to learn how to sleep and he needs to learn how to not depend on us so much. The first night was easy and he slept through the night. Last night was rough and he was up screaming from 2:30-4:00 off and on. Although he took all of his clothes off and went to the bathroom he managed to have his clothes on in the morning when he woke. That proves my point that he is able to sleep without needing aquaphor in the middle of the night, us to help put his clothes on, re-tuck him in bed and give him hugs and kisses. These have all been crutches. As I told Axel, we love him way to much for us to keep enabling him! Tough Love is awfully hard!

This weekend is a nice mellow weekend that we are looking forward to spending at home!!!

More vacation fun!

On Monday morning we headed over to Matt's house. Matt and Keith have been best buddies since they were 4 years old. They lived across the street from one another from 4 until they went off to college. For someone who moved around alot it is mind boggling to have life long friends. Matt and his wife Sarah have two kids. Teagan is a couple of months younger than Axel and Sawyer is a year older than Phoenix. Teagan and Axel had a great time playing together. Axel was relieved to leave the hotel and play in a house filled with toys all day long!

After arriving I put Phoenix down for a nap. When Phoenix woke from her second nap at Matt's I noticed that she was starting to sit by herself for a few seconds at a time. This was a whole new thing for her and something I was looking forward to her achieving.

Teagan and Axel played outside in the water and played family and were non stop for over 6 hours. Unfortunately the only picture I was able to capture was a posed picture right before we left on Tuesday morning. I wouldn't be so bummed about it if the picture actually turned out.

Keith really enjoyed hanging out with Matt and was grateful that he took the day off work to spend time with him. Here is a picture of Keith and Matt with their children before we left Tuesday morning.......34 years of friendship! Absolutely amazing to me :)

We headed back to Aunt Josie's house on Tuesday and Hannah and Axel were able to play a bit more. We also went to their local pool for some more pool fun on Tuesday evening. With the extremely hot and humid weather, Axel's skin and allergies being off the hook and the sleep deprivation by all four of us we decided to head out on the 7:30am flight Wednesday morning instead of the 7:30pm flight.

 Our travels returning were AWESOME! The kids did so much better with the morning flight than the delayed later flight on our way out East. Axel got invited up in the cock pit and not only met the pilot but she let him sit down in her seat and get his picture taken. We were all very excited at the opportunity.

We arrived back home by 1 pm in the afternoon on Wednesday, which allowed us to decompress, do laundry and unpack all of our luggage. This was very helpful because on Thursday I was able to take my time packing for our weekend away in Cloverdale. The kids did awesome with the time change by going to bed early and sleeping extra long that night. Friday morning I packed the car and then we headed to Cloverdale for Mark and Brenna's wedding. Mark and Keith are old time college buddies. We brought Annika and Marlena, our sitter and her sister, along to watch the kids while we attended the evening events on Friday and Saturday. It was amazing having them around. They were extremely helpful and I was really able to enjoy myself and not worry about the kids. We stayed in a "luxury Kabin" at the KOA that was a half a mile from the little Inn where all of the wedding events were. It was quite an interesting experience for us all, but we had fun. To make a long story short the cabin was really small and wasn't worth the $265/night, but we were really glad to be able to attend the wedding and have enough beds to sleep the 6 of us.

On Saturday morning/afternoon there was a pool party/BBQ where lots of fun was had by all of the families attending the wedding. As you can see both Phoenix and Axel LOVE the water.

After hours of fun in the sun, Axel managed to take a two hour nap before the wedding and Phoenix decided to talk to herself instead of napping. After the two hours of rest time the main event was starting. Axel picked out his outfit which turned a lot of heads. He looked so handsome and stylish that daddy was embarrassed by his casual outfit, despite the wedding being a casual event.

Here is the family before we sat down. We were trying to stay as cool as possible in the shade since the wedding was outside under the beaming hot sun.

After the ceremony Phoenix cracked because of lack of sleep so the girls took her back to the cabin and put her to bed. Axel stayed with us and made a new friend, Jason, who he played games with during dinner. After dinner he ran around with over a dozen kids who were there playing "doggy where is my bone". He had a ton of fun and was disappointed to go home, but it was 9:30pm. We dropped him off at the cabin and then headed back for some dancing fun. 

                                   

We headed home Sunday morning and boy, were we glad to be home. After unpacking the car the kids took a three hour nap! They slept from 2-5pm!!! Keith and I slept an hour and a half. Although we had a great time at the wedding and on the East coast we were both glad be home. It is official, travelling with kids is EXHAUSTING!!! :)