Parties Galore and Phoenix at 16 months

This is a picture heavy post, but I will try to fill in the fun activities with as much detail as I can in my limited time. Phoenix has been hitting some major milestones over the past few weeks. The first big news is that two of her four first year molars have cut through the gums and one more is just about to. Keith and I both thought the frequent crying/whining throughout the night was her teething. She always puts herself back to sleep after 10-15 minutes. It must be painful to cut through the gums. Hopefully she will have more peaceful nights to come when the teething process is done.

In other news Phoenix is officially running. Her climbing skills have also improved. She is still trying to "get air" with her jumping. Her hand eye coordination is improving and she is able to stack the rings and stack different size cups quite well. 

                                        

Her vocabulary is taking off. She is working hard at repeating and using words in the correct context. Her first sentence is "sit down". She has also mastered saying blueberry, which has taken her some time. It is so much fun to see her mind blossoming. It is hard to believe that my baby is now 16 months, but at the same time when I look at her she almost seems older because she no longer looks like a baby. She looks more and more like a little girl every day. 

Phoenix has also started pretend play. When she cooks she pretends to turn the facet water on and fill her bowl. She also stirs, pours and even pretends to eat what she is cooking. 

Phoenix is also getting more and more into books. Her attention span is improving although some days it is tough getting through a book from cover to cover. She wants to do everything herself. I often put her to sleep with a book and she looks through it and then falls asleep. Keith and I feel so blessed to have such an easy going child. Her squeals of delight, light up the entire house.

Axel continues to mature physically and emotionally. Over the past few weeks it seems that he is looking older. The big news with Axel is that he decided he wants to learn to read again. We had started a few months ago and then he decided he wasn't ready. I am excited to see what this summer has in store and if he will follow through with learning to read with me. 

On May 16th Axel's preschool had an end of year picnic at one of the local parks. Here he is with his two teachers, Miss Theresa and Miss Salima. 

Almost all 30 students showed up and played non stop for nearly 2 hours. I was able to get Axel to stop long enough for a hot dog and then later on for ice cream.

The next afternoon, Axel, Phoenix and I headed to a birthday party. Phoenix took an early nap, so Axel R.'s dad picked up our Axel and headed to the party. When Phoenix woke up we then drove over to join Axel for the birthday fun. 

Phoenix checking out the birthday fun.

Phoenix joining Connor and Axel for some birthday fun in the jump house.

We were one of the last two families to close out the party, hence why the bounce house looks empty. Both Phoenix and Axel were quite brave and went into the bounce house with about 10-15 other 5 and 7 year olds when the party was in full force earlier in the day though.

On Thursday Phoenix had her first experience washing the car with me and Axel. Axel decided he needed a break from tap and ballet so we stayed home and played instead.

Axel had a blast manning the hose, while Phoenix was content playing in the bucket of water.

She did manage to scrub her wash cloth on the car a little bit, although she was more fascinated in watching the water drip from her wash cloth onto the ground.

Axel and Phoenix have really been into taking bubble baths lately. I found the all natural bubble bath Axel was given when he was baby. It has been fun to see them play with the bubbles. Daddy taught Axel how to make a beard and other facial hair.

Yesterday, we headed to another birthday party at Pump it Up. 

Axel had a blast. It is amazing to see how much he has conquered his fears over the past few months. He needed zero warm up time although I did have to help him a couple of times with climbing walls that were too difficult or getting comfortable going down this huge slide. I have to admit that is the best part of going is getting to get in on the fun with him. This particular slide Axel and I would get a bit of air and rocket down over the crash wall.

As you can see from the crowd, this was quite a party. I think there was over 30 kids. Luckily the rooms were big enough to accommodate such a big party.

After this birthday party we headed over to our neighbor's house to celebrate his retirement and birthday as well.

Phoenix and Axel had fun playing with Annika while us adults were able to socialize a bit. It was quite a long fun day.

Today we had Tyler and Cynthia over for dinner. They are gearing up for their twin girl's arrival. The girls can come any day, but they are hoping to last another few weeks. Both Axel and Phoenix have had a lot of excitement and later nights than usual. Hopefully, we can all get back on track with sleep.

I want to give a shout out to all of the May birthdays that are coming up this week. Happy birthday Mom, Kendra, Grandma Burgess and Grandma Goldstein!!!

Happy Mother's Day

We have had a wonderful relaxing day today. We enjoyed delicious pumpkin pancakes and lattes for breakfast with a huge fruit salad. Phoenix loves to do everything that Axel does. Axel is extremely charming as he not only shares his chair, but he also shares his food.

                                           

If you look closely at this picture you can see a big bruise on Phoenix's forehead. She had quite a rough day this past Thursday, but I will get to that in a second.
                                            

After breakfast Keith and I went for a nice ride together. When we got home Phoenix was still napping so the Axel and Keith picked me lovely flowers. The small vase is from Phoenix and the large vase is from Axel. They are absolutely beautiful. I love how excited Axel gets when he gets to give them to me.                            

                                            

Once Pheeny woke from her nap we played a bit at Marshall Lane Elementary (until Axel had to use the bathroom) and then we played in the park across the street from our house.

 It was a lovely day, although Phoenix did come down with a cold and went to bed just after 5pm. 

Before I get to earlier this week I wanted to include a picture of a few of our decorations from Tyler and Cynthia's baby shower. Axel helped me with the thing 1 and thing 2 puppets as well as the diaper cake. Keith did a great job with the cupcakes. 

Here is a not so good picture of how the shower began with the kids dressed nicely. Within 20 minutes Phoenix had her dress covered in blue chalk so I quickly changed her into "play clothes", which was good since she splashed and spilled all of the bubble solution for giant bubbles. I can't get upset because I love that she likes to play hard and experiment with anything and everything.

On Wednesday while Axel was in his hip hop class, Phoenix managed to ride the mini merry go round for the first time.

She has been eyeing it for over a month now. She lucked out because I needed to call daddy back and the merry go round just happened to be going. Although she looks a bit worried, she absolutely loved it and didn't want to get off.

On Thursday we went to the library for new books and managed to catch the first half of story time, while we waited for Auntie to arrive. The kids had fun as usual. I was a bit worried because Phoenix had slipped on her pj's and fell back and hit her head. She threw up a bit of her breakfast, which made it a little scary for me. We left early to make it home for Auntie's arrival at 11am.

Auntie came to pick up the phone desk/table that has been in our family for years. It has been passed around for some time. I was sad to see it go, but I knew she would want it back at some point. Regardless of the reason for their visit, it was a great excuse to see both of them. Braylin is growing up quickly and is already starting to cruise sideways. She is quite adorable and Axel had fun playing with her and eating her food. He was never able to eat the baby puffs because of his allergies. He enjoyed them as much as Braylin does :)

After Auntie and Braylin left we headed to Axel's tap and ballet dance class. When we were waiting for Axel at the door when class was over, Phoenix bent over to grab something she dropped and hit her head really hard on the door jam. I have never seen her cry so hard. I was able to get ice upstairs at the juice shop, but she didn't let me ice very long. Once we were home she didn't really want to eat dinner, but was interested in the salad that I was eating. She was so excited to eat salad with me (she was sitting on my lap) that she rocked herself back and forth and hit her lip on the wood salad bowl. She did this twice and gave herself a fat lip. On top of all this, after explaining to daddy the rough day she had and how important it was for her to not fall again, he turned his back on her and she fell off a kitchen chair and hit her head again! I couldn't believe it. I was so frustrated for her. Luckily she calmed down quickly and after a few minutes of cuddling she was her usual self. We monitored her for the next few hours and she woke up her happy self. I was extremely glad for the day to be over. Hopefully, we won't have one of those days for a long time!

On Friday I volunteered all day at Axel's school. He brought farm animals from home for his show and tell. They are learning about farm animals this month and are encouraged to bring in anything from home to show and tell. Axel had fun talking about his stuffed cows, horses, dog, cat, and pig.

Axel and Phoenix absolutely adore each other. Axel is an amazing big brother and Phoenix is just as loving and giving.

She regularly goes up to Axel to give him a hug. She also regularly takes his toys, but both Axel and I have learned she mostly does this for attention. She wants to be chased and squeals with delight for any reason that one of us chase her, even if Axel is mad that she has the toy he is playing with.

These two picture were taken after we picked up Phoenix from daycare on Friday. She missed Axel so much she wanted to give him several hugs. After Phoenix ate a snack we headed over to Marshall Lane for a game and festival commencing the walk athon they had earlier in the day. The only picture I managed to take was Phoenix walking towards me with my water bottle. We played for over an hour on the play structure and then headed home for bath and bed time.

Dancing Machines

Axel has been attending the Hip Hop class on Wednesday nights and Tape and Ballet combo on Thursday nights. He absolutely loves it! We now have a dance floor set up in the play room.

  Both Axel and Phoenix take turns dancing.  Axel's dance teachers are both impressed with his natural rhythm and how well he is picking up the "moves". The Dance Zone's annual dance recital is June 21st and the classes are now really geared towards preparing the students for this recital. Despite this Axel is a trooper and not only studies the moves while he is in class, even if he doesn't get them, but now practices at home. Keith and I are really proud of him.

Phoenix loves to climb over things and through things. Here she is climbing under her activity table.

Phoenix is very loving as well. She is constantly carrying around one of her animals or dolls. It is very cute!

Just like Axel she is already showing signs of not wanting to sit in her high chair. She is learning that she needs to sit in the big chair instead of standing. She finally took her first fall from this exact chair a couple of days ago. I knew it was bound to happen. I definitely think Phoenix is going to be one of those kids who is going to have to learn some lessons the hard way. Yes, that is how incredibly strong willed and stubborn this girl is!

On Thursday we headed to Sadie's house for a play date. She lives close to Rancho San Antonio Open Preserve where they have a farm.

It was over a mile walk each way. The kids had fun playing in many of the trees. Here Sadie and Axel were pretending that we couldn't see them. They were tree monsters or maybe I was suppose to be the tree monster and try to get them. I always get so confused with all of Axel's rules :)

Phoenix loves playing with the big kids. She had fun playing inside the tree as well. I absolutely love her enthusiasm at everything she does.

We made it to the farm and saw dairy cows, sheep, goats, chickens, rabbits, pigs, ducks and geese.

It is funny how things like this don't get old for Axel. He has been there now close to half a dozen times and he loves it just the same as the first time he went.

Phoenix absolutely loved the animals. This was her first time here and ......

she loved checking out everything at her own pace.

I had to capture the triplet goats that were born on March 25th. I thought it was a precious moment to seem them cuddling with each other in the sun.

On the way back Sadie and Axel requested to go in the big tree stump they had in previous visits. Afterwards we played at Sadie's house and then came home for Pheeny's nap. For the second day in a row Phoenix took a 3 hour nap! She has only done this a handful of times in her life so I assume she must have grown an inch or developed more vocabulary during these marathon naps. She is talking more, but she tends to save the language for when she is having fun playing or if she feels very comfortable. She tends to observe more and rely on her physical strengths rather than use her words willingly all of the time. Her current list of words is as follows: apple, Axel, ouch, huh-oh, ball, bottle, spoon, cheerios, shoes, up, down, mama, dadda, out, bath time, go, poopoo, this, it's, doggie, "caw" for crow and all birds, "quack" for duck and bye, bye. I am sure she has other words, but I can' t think of anymore at this time.

Grandma Sonia sent Phoenix 5 pair of shoes she picked up at her local Good will. Phoenix absolutes loves shoes and now wears different shoes throughout the day. Once she is over having so many wonderful shoes she will have to get use to the no shoes in the house rule again :)

Phoenix loves to climb into her chair at night and wait for me to read her books. She isn't always able to have the attention span for the books, but she loves the idea of reading books and often will sit and talk to herself looking through her books. She is by far one of the happiest and easy going babies/ toddlers I have ever met. She absolutely makes my heart melt with love and joy looking at her love for life and everything that she does.

Yesterday we celebrated our good friends future twin girls. We had so much fun that I forgot to take pictures the entire 5+ hours that we were there. Luckily, it was a success and everyone had a great time. The decorations which Axel and I worked hard on were loved by all and Daddy's yummy cupcakes were devoured. I will hopefully include a picture of these next time. Until then....have a great week!