Babies Have It So Easy

While his Mama worked hard packing all of his things for our trip to Boise, Elliot got to just lounge around on the bed. Lucky baby!

Happy Birthday, Nana

Here are a few things I keep close to remind me of you each day...

A picture of you as a baby.

A beautiful sewing thing that you wore around your neck when you were little. It still has some old needles and a thimble of yours in it.

Your old lunch bag. I take it to work with me.

The nut grinder that I loved using when we would make cookies together when I was a little girl.

I think all of my Nana things are so special. I hope you had a wonderful day today. I love you so much.

Elliot's First Hanukkah

With Christmas music playing in the background (we're multicultural in this family), Elliot's Spiritual Guardian, Annika, introduced Elliot to his first Hanukkah. She made the most delicious latkes.

Elliot was way into it.

He and his Mama could hardly stand it as they waited for Annika to finish cooking.

While we all waited, Annika told us the story of Hanukkah. (She told it from memory and I dictated quickly. We both apologize if any part of the story is a bit off.)...

"Once upon a time, the Maccabees (who were Jews) were fighting a terrible, terrible war. I don't remember against who, but it was terrible. After they won the war, they came back down the hill from the where they had been fighting and found their city destroyed, including their synagogue. For the Jews, academics are very important and in those days all of the learning happened in the synagogue. They knew they had to rebuild it, so they set about digging through the rubble looking for oil to light the way. In the rubble they found one day's worth of oil, but when they lit it in the lamp it lasted for 8 days, allowing them time to rebuild their temple. And that's the story of Hanukkah!"

Soon the laktes were done. We had plenty of applesauce and sour cream to put on them. Yum!

Annika was very proud of herself, as she should be.

Sadly, Elliot had to go to bed before he could hear Annika read "Hershel and the Hanukkah Goblins," but Andrea and I sure enjoyed it.

It was a lovely first Hanukkah for Elliot. Andrea and I are committed to positioning people in Elliot's life that he can trust to help guard and guide him on his journey through life. Annika is charged as his Spiritual Guradian, helping to foster a lifetime of spirit and spirituality in him. This Hanukkah celebration was the perfect step on that journey. Thank you, SG, and happy Hanukkah!

O Tannenbaum

I knew I definitely wanted a Christmas tree for Elliot's first Christmas, but we didn't want to spend the money on one and we'll be gone for a week to Boise to celebrate Christmas with Andrea's family before Elliot's Nan (my mom) comes here for our Christmas, so it seemed like a waste to buy one and just let it dry out. So my brilliant idea was to go up to Mt. Tabor, the beautiful forested park that we live at the bottom of, and gather some branches to "build" a Christmas tree. Well... it's either been too cold or too wet or we've been too sick. There's been no going up Tabor for us for a while now. So I decided to be creative with what I had in my own back yard... a big, beautiful tree and some hedge clippers.

I chopped down some branches and brought them inside. I was sure they would make a great tree. Elliot loved exploring them.
I put a box over a bucket of water.

I cut a whole in a box.
I put the tree in the box.
We decorated the tree.
This one used to belong to my grandparents, Nana and Bapa.
And this is an angel from Nan that we used to top our tree.

And here it is... Elliot's first Christmas tree! The picture doesn't do it justice (I can't wait until Santa Nan brings our new camera!). It is really very sweet. It smells yummy and looks pretty and even has a present under it already. It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas around here!

One Plop or Two

Most weekends we make a whole batch of baby foods for Elliot's week, but it used to be primarily sweet potatoes and bananas. Now he's starting to eat so many new things it makes the baby food-making so much more fun! Here's the before shot... all of his yummy foods: carrots, sweet potatoes, bananas, pears, dinosaur kale, and oatmeal.

This is the equivalent of us licking the cookie batter off the spoon.

Elliot liked it so much he literally lunged to get another lick. His SG, Annika, thinks he's so cleaver!
The after shot: kale, sweet potatoes, prunes, and pears. Delicious!

The last thing we'll do is freeze it into cubes. When Andrea was a baby, her parents called those little baby food cubes "plops," which is so dang cute we of course call them plops now, too. Elliot eats 2-3 plops, 2-3 times a day. We usually do a mixture, like two oatmeals and a prune or two sweet potatoes and a kale. It's so satisfying to make his food for him. It feels so healthy and nourishing. It's a lot of work, but worth it. Thanks so much for the New Season's gift card, Nan. All of this today was because of you!

I Heart Rojo

Today was the big holiday party I throw every year for all of the client families I work with. The highlight of this year's party... Rojo the Llama! Yes, that's right. A llama. But not just any llama, a very special THERAPY llama. You know, like a therapy dog who goes to a hospital to cheer up the patients? Well, this is a LLAMA who goes around to different community locations and events to spread cheer. He is gorgeous and sweet and soft and gentle and he makes everyone smile. We were so lucky to have Rojo join us today. By far, the best work event I've ever thrown.

One Little Monkey, Jumping on the Bed

Ugh... sickness round 2 hit our house this week. Andrea and I were both down for the count. Luckily, Elliot has stayed healthy. Unluckily, he's had two sick Mamas (thanks to Annika for coming to take care of us all on Wednesday night!).

Needless to say, I was dragging as I made our lunches and got bottles ready last night in preparation for today. Andrea was upstairs putting laundry away (the never ending battle). I could hear Elliot, who was upstairs with her, squealing with delight. I finished what I was doing, climbed the stairs, and found this lovely sight:

He was sitting in his crib, squealing at his little stuffed animals. Smiling, shrieking, so so so happy!

Then, just when I thought he couldn't get any happier, he started flapping his arms and making himself bounce up and down!

How is it possible that he keeps getting cuter and cuter?!?!?? I just love this little baby!

Shadow Puppet

Elliot sat so quietly and sweetly this morning playing with the shadow his hand made on the kitchen table. What do you think... does it look like Pinocchio with a long nose?

Sleeping Through the Commotion

This sweetest little peapod slept soundly through his morning nap, even as the Portland Fire Department worked hard right outside our front door.

The "meth house" (our speculation, not yet confirmed) two doors down was engulfed in flames this morning at 4am. Now, at almost 10:00, the crew is still working hard to clean up the mess. It's so cold outside that all of the water that ran onto the ground is frozen solid and our street is completely blocked off. Andrea's even stuck home from work because of all of the trucks and hoses blocking our driveway!

Things that we are grateful for:

1. The flames didn't jump houses and get us

2. It wasn't our direct next door neighbors, which means we were both safer and we don't now have to look at a burned down house next to us (yes--the neighbor's house could actually look worse than it already does)

3. We no longer have a meth house on our block

4. Living on "the tracks" meant our house was affordable, we get lots of excitement, and we still haven't really suffered any serious consequences from our location

C is for Cookie

Honey and Jam posted two delicious looking chocolate chip cookie recipes AND she's giving away a cookie scoop! Click on the link and take a look. Aren't her pictures beautiful?!?!

Worst Day of the Year Tradition

It has become an unplanned tradition that each year when I'm finally ready to put out the Christmas lights it happens to be one of the worst weather days of the year. This year it was a beautiful 32 degrees with 20 mile an hour winds whipping in from the gorge making it feel like the low 20s... just right for getting out on a ladder at 4:30 in the afternoon to hang lights! Ah well, I'm a sucker for tradition.

Cast Your Ballot

We all ate sweet potatoes and purple kale for dinner tonight. Whose do you think looks better: mine and Andrea's or Elliot's? My vote is for the adult version (although Elliot had no problem with how his looked and gobbled up every bite!).

Future Scientist

Today was Elliot's first trip to the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry, the children's science museum here in Portland.

In the "science playground," the area for the littlest scientists, Elliot was able to do lots of playing...

Looking at fish...

And drumming...

But, true to this little scientist's nature, his favorite activity was watching...

Elliot is still on the young side for most of the stuff at OMSI, but it was so much fun to show him everything. He is such a delight. We are so lucky to have this sweet little scientist in our life.

The Artist in the Family

My brother, Kaua, is an amazing photographer. He is an artist. And he loves his nephew SO much. We were lucky enough to have him come visit when Elliot was only eight weeks old and he took the most beautiful pictures. Right now we're putting together our first family Christmas photo card, so I asked Kaua to send me these two kissing ones for us to use. Aren't they beautiful? And look at tiny Elliot! So sweet!



Aloha, Uncle. We love you so much!

Look At Him Go

Reaching...
Stretching...

He got it! Yay!!!

Raise Your Hand If You Have Leftover Turkey

We just made the most delicious soup with our leftover Thanksgiving turkey and it only took 30 minutes to make. If you're reading this... put down your computer and go make this soup. Your mouth will be so happy you did!

White Bean and Turkey Chili

(leave out the turkey and use veggie broth for a vegan chili)

1 tablespoon olive oil

2 cups diced yellow onion (about 2 medium)

1 1/2 tablespoon chili powder

1 tablespoon minced garlic (we left this out)

1 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin

1 teaspoon dried oregano

3 cans Great Northern beans, drained

4 cups chicken broth

3 cups chopped cooked turkey

(we just used as much as we had left,

we also thought it would be just as good with chicken sausage wheels)

1 can diced tomatoes

1/3 cup diced fresh cilantro (we used more--almost the whole bunch)

2 tablespoons fresh lime juice (we used more of this, too--a whole lime's worth)

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon pepper

Heat oil and saute the onion. Add chili powder, garlic, cumin, oregano and beans. Saute for 2 minutes. Add broth and tomatoes. Bring to a simmer and cook 20 minutes. Add turkey and cook 5 minutes until thoroughly heated. Remove from heat. Add cilantro, lime juice, salt and pepper. Yum!

Follow up: I forgot to say that we added a half a bag of frozen corn--a very tasty addition to the recipe. Also, as we continued eating the soup over the next few days, we wished we had kept the lime and cilantro out and added it fresh eat time. The flavor was not nearly as good when it was reheated. But the first night... so good!

Sleep, Glorious Sleep

Somehow, someway, for some unknown reason, Elliot woke up to nurse only ONCE last night! That meant I got a 5 hour chunk of sleep, followed by a 3.5 hour chunk. Elliot wakes up to nurse every two hours still, so you can imagine how great I feel today!

These sweet sleeper pictures are from the last hour of the morning when Andrea snuggled Elliot into bed with me. So sweet.