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......

In Memory of Captain Louis Szolusha 10/16/02-1/24/17

Here is the picture where it all began. Keith chose Louis from this picture when he was a few weeks old. He then went to Ocala, Florida in early January of 2003 to pick him up and bring him home. 

It wasn't long until Keith got Louis a companion. Brittany and him were a loving little couple. 

Keith said that they got along very well and together they had a litter of 8 little pure bred pugs, with 6 that survived. 

Louis was a stunning pug. He was lean and fit and loved to run. He played frisbee for hours and hours in his younger years. He could jump 3 to 4 feet in the air as well. 

Keith kept the only male black pug from the litter. Here Louis is being the encouraging father giving Touis tough love. He taught Touis very well and Touis did a great job of playing tug of war with Louis the 5 years that they lived together. 

Louis and Touis were great together. It was a love, hate relationship.

They slept together, ate together, went on walks together and did everything together.

It was funny when I went through the thousands of pictures from over the years. I thought it was Touis that was always in my lap, but the more I looked the more I found Louis in my lap like in this picture below.

I have so many pictures of Louis sitting at the top of the couch. He would be in this position or ....

in this position biting the couch. It was a way he appeared to calm himself. 

Throughout his life he always loved to snuggle in or under blankets. Grandma Susan made him the blanket below. Little Grammy also sent several sweaters which he loved to wear throughout the years. 

All of the kids loved Louis and Touis. Touis died of stomach cancer a couple of years ago when he was 10 years old.  It was really sad to hear of this news. It was even harder the day we had to give up Touis over 6 and a half years ago. 

Touis couldn't handle when Axel started walking. He felt like there was too much competition and he wanted to be the alpha dog. The behaviorist told us he would continue to hurt Louis until he did officially become the alpha dog. Although it was hard, it appeared to be the best thing for the family.

We loved both dogs so much. They were really like kids before we had Axel. 

Here was one of their favorite places, the garden that Keith worked so hard to maintain at our old place in Los Altos. Louis' favorite food to eat from the garden were tomatoes.

Here is the first time Axel walked Louis. He was about 11 months old and couldn't quite stand on his own yet. I held on to him for balance.

Here is a picture of Phoenix walking Louis nearly 5 years later. 

He was truly the sweetest dog. He loved all of the kids and tolerated all of them "loving" on him whether it was gentle or not. He completed our family. 

Although Louis really started going downhill the past year he had been showing signs of aging for over 2 years when he first developed pneumonia. He had pneumonia for the 3rd time around Thanksgiving last year and for the 4th and final time earlier this week. His arthritis was extremely severe and he could barely walk at times. He would shake often and cough often. The vets think that he must have had something else going on within him. We had the option of putting him through several tests to find out the root cause of the pneumonia but everyone agreed that he was in a terrific amount of pain and that he would continue to suffer.  

On Monday night after the kids were in bed Louis started shaking and throwing up. Keith and I knew immediately that he likely had pneumonia. What I didn't realize is that he wouldn't be coming home like he usually does. Instead, Keith came home at 10:30 to have the talk with me about putting him to sleep. I was mad and angry. I don't exactly understand euthanasia in animals and don't believe in it for adults, but after talking through it I do understand animals can't communicate like humans can and that it was the ultimate best thing for him. Keith went back to the vet and was able to say goodbye to Louis. Louis breathed his last breath (after they took him off oxygen) just after midnight. I was able to weep alone and read the bible which gave me peace about the situation. Keith was able to weep and talk with his mom at the vet after he said goodbye.

We told the kids after school and pick up on Tuesday. Phoenix seemed more upset about it than Axel. The most concerned was Rubix though. He looked throughout the entire house to find Louis. He continues to look outside and go to his bed. Animals have such a profound effect on infants and the human persona. We are very lucky to have had Louis in our lives. May he rest in peace.