Happy Birthday Eliot!

Resolution breakers...

...that's what we are. It's not even the second month of the year and we've already broken our resolution to blog at least once a week. Well, I'm better than Jason anyway - he still hasn't posted about the marathon last year (Yes, that was at the beginning of October!). Try, try again, I guess.

Both me and Jason have been really busy at work this month which makes us pretty tired by the time we get home and make supper, feed Eliot, feed ourselves, bath Eliot, read a book (or 4) to Eliot, brush Eliot's teeth and put Eliot to bed. We also were in the position of finding new daycare for Eliot a couple of weeks ago which took some time and was stressful as those kinds of things always are. But it's working out great and he's actually napping during the day which makes for a much happier family in the evenings.

In case you didn't remember, Eliot will be one year old on Thursday. Can you believe it? I can't. It's absolutely crazy to me that an entire year has passed already. If I think about it too much, I get really sad because it's been such a great year and we've enjoyed every minute with him and it's just all flying by too quickly. Do you know that if we want Eliot and his sister (our next baby WILL be a girl!) to be 2 years apart, I need to be preggers by March!? No plans for that quite yet, but we'll keep you updated! Maybe September instead of March...

We'll be celebrating Eliot's birthday with my family this weekend. Since Eliot and his cousins all *LOVE* swimming, we decided to take them to a waterpark and stay overnight at the adjoining hotel. It should be fun for all involved, including the adults. For his birthday, we got Eliot a bunch of miscellaneous things (books, bubble bath, etc.) and a rocking horse! I'm so excited to give it to him - he's really close to walking all on his own (so, so amazing!) and I think he'll love playing with it. He should be able to get on and off pretty easily. Take a look:


Now doesn't that look like fun?! We will likely have a couple of other birthday parties with Jason's family and friends also in the near future. Adorable pictures to come...

I'm planning on making an organic, sugar-free carrot cake for Eliot's birthday and it sounds so yummy that I thought I'd share the recipe with you. I'm hoping to make a "test" cake this week so I'll post a picture if Jason doesn't eat it all first.

Organic, Good for baby, Sugar-free Carrot Cake

Ingredients:

• 8 oz (2 cups) whole wheat organic flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• a pinch of salt
• 10 fl oz (1 1/4 cup) water
• 6oz (3/4 cup) organic raisins
• 6oz (3/4 cup) organic sultanas
• 1 tsp organic cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp organic nutmeg
• 8oz (1 cup) organic carrots, grated
• 4 fl oz (1/2 cup) organic, unsweetened applesauce

Directions:

• Preheat the oven to 375 deg F (190 deg C).
• Combine the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt in a bowl.
• Pour the water into a small saucepan and add the raisins, nutmeg, cinnamon and sultanas.
• Bring the mixture to a boil, then lower the heat and simmer for 5 mins.
• Put the grated carrots into a bowl, then pour in the liquid mixture. Then, add the applesauce and stir the mixture thoroughly.
• Mix the wet ingredients with the dry ingredients and stir thoroughly.
• Pour the mixture into a greased pan and bake for 45 mins to 1 hour, until a sharp knife inserted into the centre comes out clean.
• Eat and enjoy! If you're the birthday boy, feel free to throw cake or smear it all over your face and head.
  

Since we're posting recipes, here's a couple more. Eliot's had a bit of a cough all month and after we read a recent article about Vicks being not good for babies, I decided to make our own natural (and safe!) chest rub for colds. Here's the recipe...warning, it smells absolutely fantastic and is known to induce sleepytime in our house!

Homemade Natural Chest Rub

Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup organic, unrefined coconut oil
• 3 tablespoons grated beeswax
• 2 tablespoons sweet almond or olive oil
• 1 teaspoon Vitamin E oil (to help preserve it)
• Lavender essential oil
• Eucalyptus essential oil
• Rosemary essential oil

Directions:

• Melt the coconut oil, beeswax and sweet almond or olive oil in a double boiler on medium heat.
  
• Once it's melted and blended together, pour the mixture into a small glass jar - any small container will do, but glass is preferable to plastic or metal because of the essential oils.
• Add 10 drops of Lavender EO, 4 drops of Eucalyptus EO, 6 drops of Rosemary EO and the Vitamin E oil to the oil/beeswax mixture. IMPORTANT: If you're making this for adult use, you can use more Eucalyptus but 4 drops is the absolute most you'd want to use for babies!
• Gently stir it to mix the oils.
• Let it harden before use (you can speed it up in the fridge).
• Appy to baby's chest liberally and smell, smell, smell the yumminess and go to sleep!

Ok, since this is a recipe heavy post - here's one more. This one's for you, Tom - now go clean the tub!

All Natural Soft Scrub

Ingredients:

• 1/2 -3/4 cup baking soda
• 1 cup vinegar
• 1 cup distilled water
• 2 tablespoons natural, non-toxic cleanser (we like to use Restore All-Purpose Cleaner)
• 10-15 drops of Tea tree essential oil, Lavender essential oil and Rosemary essential oil (use less if you want it less smelly, more if you like it smelly)

Directions:

• Mix the baking soda, water, cleanser and essential oils in a large bowl.
• Add the vinegar last - it will foam like crazy.
• Mix well - the consistency should be like a runny frosting. If it's to runny, add more baking soda. If it's too thick, add more vinegar and/or distilled water.
• I make this without measuring as you can't really screw it up as long as there's some of every ingredient in there. It's really easy and it works great!

Until next week...stay warm!

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year Everyone! One of our New Year's Resolutions is to blog at least once a week, so hopefully you'll hear from us more regularly in the future. Here's the update on our last three months.

In October, we took Eliot to an event that our previous Realtors hold every year. They had a ton of pumpkins (literally!) free for the taking along with apple cider, pony rides, cookies, etc. Eliot was super tired because he had missed his nap and refused to put his costume on. He picked his pumpkins and had some cider anyway. Eliot also refused to wear his costume on Halloween, which was a bummer because it is an adorable shark costume. We spent Halloween night with some friends, just relaxing and hanging out. We did manage to get Eliot into his Halloween pj's, though which were also very cute.

The weekend of October 20th, we stayed at my parent's house in Roberts, Wisconsin with the rest of my family and celebrated Thanksgiving. In past years, it seemed that someone ALWAYS got caught in a snowstorm on the way home, so we decided to celebrate early this year. Since we were all together in the Twin Cities, we also decided to have family photos taken. We had a fantastic weekend. We all ate way to much, the guys played their annual game of Monopoly and we had a few more crying babies to get used to. Fun, fun, fun!

At the beginning of November we took a trip to Canada to celebrate my grandfather's 90th birthday. Very cool! I hope I make it that long! The weather on the way there was a bit scary, including freezing rain and snow, but we made it safe. While we were there, we also celebrated Thanksgiving with both sides of my family. We get to see everyone there so seldom that we really cherish the time we spend there.



Eliot somehow came down with a pretty serious cold while we were there, which lasted for a couple of weeks. We took him the doctor when we got back from Canada and they found that he had pink eye and possibly pneumonia, but our physician was comfortable letting us watch it and he cleared up within a couple weeks without us needing to use antibiotics. Once he was feeling a little better, we had his nine month photos taken (late, as usual).

On November 17th, Jason left the YMCA and started new job with a division of United Healthcare called Optum Health. He had been having concerns about job security at the YMCA and as a result, started pursuing other opportunities. Fortunately, one of our friends was in a position to line Jason up with an interview which ended up in his getting a management position at Optum. Just after starting his new job, there was a major reorganization at the Y which would have had Jason reapply for his job. We feel very lucky to have dodged that bullet, especially considering the economy right now!

The Sunday before Thanksgiving, Eliot gave us a huge scare. We had a great day at home playing with Eliot and getting ready for the week. Around 6:00 pm, he started getting a little fussy and we thought he was tired. He kept playing on the floor. At 6:45 pm, Jason picked him up and we noticed that his eyes were red and glassy and he seemed to be "out of it". At first, we suspected that it was pink eye recurring but then we noticed that he seemed to be warm and have a fever. We gave him a dose of Advil right away and I ran upstairs to get the thermometer to take his temperature. Before we had a chance to take it, he lost consciousness in Jason's arms. It lasted for about 5-10 seconds and he came out of it, but there was clearly something very wrong. We decided to drive to the hospital, but before we could even leave the room it happened again. Jason took Eliot to the bathroom and splashed water on his face and he passed out a third time. This all happened within a minute and a half or so. By this time, I was on the phone with 911 and a firetruck arrived at our house within three minutes. The ambulance and paramedics followed within another minute or two. They took me and Eliot to the hospital via ambulance and Jason followed in the car. My parents met us there a little while later. We stayed in the ER for about four hours while they did some tests, but they didn't find anything conclusive. They called what happened an Unexplained Life-threatening Event and decided to admit us to the hospital for observation. Eliot's temperature, which was about 103.7 when we arrived at the hospital, stayed high almost all night. They checked it every hour and were giving him Tylenol and Advil alternately on the hour also. Finally, near morning, it broke. We talked to the doctor in the early afternoon and made it home by late afternoon. We all crashed and didn't get up until the next morning. Eliot stayed home with me all that week and by the end of the week was feeling better. There's been no issues since then and we pray that it was a one time deal. It was very scary to be in the hospital with him and not know what was wrong. We're so grateful and happy to have a healthy, playful boy today.

On December 5th, we saw the Broadway Play, WICKED, at the Orpheum theatre with some friends. We had a very nice dinner out before the play and got to enjoy some rare "adult time". The play was fantastic! If you get the chance to see it, you absolutely should! If not, the book is even better. You can pick it up at Amazon. Then on December 7th, Jason turned 33! I know! He's old, right? Just kidding, baby! We celebrated his birthday and a late Thanksgiving with his family and had a great day!

With big families in different cities and states, our Christmas celebrations ended up being spread out over a couple of weeks, which just extended the holiday fun! Jason's family is so large that we ended up renting the Monticello community center to be able to include all 35+ people. It was nice to be able to see all the kids (who are growing up very quickly) and the new babies who joined the family in the past few years. The weather was bad that day, so we ended up having a scary ride back home on very icy roads but made it safe and sound.

Our next Christmas was in Sioux Falls. Again, the weather created travel issues for us. We contemplated not going due to blizzard warnings and tons of snow, but rescheduling wasn't an option so we just braved it. We had an awesome time playing Wii (I kicked your butt, Miah!) and Eliot got to see Santa for the first time with his cousin, Behr. It was so much to see all the boys playing (kind of...) together and Charlie is getting to be such a big girl. We also started a new family tradition by each writing a nice note about everyone else and sharing the notes as part of our gift giving. It was a great weekend!




On Christmas Eve, we celebrated with Jason's dad's side of the family in Blaine. Eliot was adorable while opening his gifts, exclaiming "oooh" and "aaah" as he opened each one.

On Christmas morning, we celebrated our family Christmas. Jason made us a delicious breakfast of eggnog pancakes, a savory egg bake and champagne - no champagne for Eliot, of course. He had eggnog instead, which he loved! Breakfast (made by Jason) is one of our new family traditions. The only problem with celebrating on Christmas morning is that we all have bedhead in the pictures! After breakfast, we opened gifts. Eliot liked all his gifts, but his absolute favorite was a push cart that he can put toys in and walk behind. He plays with it every day and is getting so much closer to walking on his own! Christmas night we headed over to my parent's house and had a delicious sirloin steak supper after which we all vegged on the couch all evening.






Finally, on New Years, we did nothing. That's right... no party for us. We stayed home, drank a bottle of champagne, watched some t.v. and went to bed around 12:15 am. Eliot woke up right around midnight so we got some cute video of him being all sleepy just as we entered 2009. It was a great night!

I had two weeks off over the holidays and Jason had just about a week off so we got to spend some serious quality time with Eliot and each other. It was so nice and such a change from only getting to spend weekends and a few hours each evening with him. We played and played and played some more. He is getting to be such a big boy and we cannot believe he's almost a year old! The past year was no doubt the fastest of both of our lives! We can only hope that 2009 is as blessed a year as 2008 was for us!

Hugs and kisses to you all!