this and that

This little bean is 5 weeks old now, and while he is pretty much a good baby, he is a SUPER up-chucker.

That is not hyperbole.  It is a little alarming how much this baby pukes.  On the plus side, he probably weighs close to 14lbs now, so he is obviously keeping some of his milk down... on the downside it seems pretty miserable for him to be such a puker all the time....aaaaand he has a 3 hour bout of fussing to intense screaming in the evenings.  We like to call it Eli's happy hour around these parts.  We make some drinks and Loren and I attempt to have a conversation that goes like this: "WHAT, I can't hear you!" "Huh?" "Never mind." The other night I came out into the living room to find Loren rocking the boy with his noise-cancelling ear phones on--he says, "Man this really takes the edge off."

After lots of reading and research and trial and error I believe that his constant puking is a reaction to something in my diet, and when I eat no wheat or dairy products there seems to be an immediate improvement.  So as of a couple days ago I became a no gluten, no dairy kind of girl.  That pretty much eliminates all good things that I want to eat during the holiday season with my breastfeeding munchies.  Dang.  As far as the evening happy hour goes--I think he is just trying to shut himself down for the night.  Sadie went through a similar spell.  We are all just praying he grows out of it and in the meantime are reciting the age old parenting mantra, "this too shall pass." 

Other than that, Eli is a happy, sweet baby during the day, and a pretty good sleeper at night.  So we are fortunate.  I don't feel wrecked for sleep like I did the first time around, but between Sadie and my pregnancy with Eli I haven't had an uninterrupted night's sleep in two years, so I'm groovy with nightwakings now.  For those of you who are wondering...life with two children is even more awesome and simultaneously terrifying than life with one.  Between packing and Sadie's new favorite activity of taking everything out and putting it to some imaginary use and then leaving it in a totally different part of the house we are living in a disaster area. 

Also, I have been trying to cook good, wholesome food for our family and figure out ways to keep this gluten/dairy free thing real while providing adequate nourishment for the two-year-old.  I'm not trying to toot my own horn here, but I'm a fairly decent cook.  Regardless, some days I can't seem to get Sadie (who has always been an excellent and adventurous eater) to try anything.  And then I will catch her eating a dog biscuit. WTF?  She would be one happy girl if I just served her up a dog treat with a side of butter, because that is the other thing she is always trying to sneak out of the kitchen. Just when I'm about to lose faith, the kid surprises me, by ravenously devouring everything on her plate... like tonight:

bacon spinach salad, figs and plums and wholewheat pasta with sundried tomatos.  All gone. 
The 3 ingredient maple pumpkin souffles I made yesterday:

not so much.  Oh well.  And then there is always snacktime trauma when your banana rainbow breaks in half. 

I'm not usually one to take pictures of my crying kid... I was actually trying to snap a picture of Sadie because she looked so pretty with the sun coming through the window with the Christmas cactus blooming, but then this happened. Yep.  So that's us right now, in a state of beautiful upheaval and continual chaos, but happy, and thankful for family and a break in the weather, and two healthy kids, and our wonderful CSA box that is full of fresh goodness every week--and excited, so excited for our big move and a new home to settle into.  I think it was NOFX who sang that "life is like chinese food...it's sweet and sour..."  but mostly sweet, and I'll have mine without MSG, or gluten, or dairy. please.

its for the kids.