could it be?

One year already?

On Friday, Eleanor turned one. I think of first birthdays as a celebration of mother AND baby. We made it! All the sleepless nights, the baby illnesses (and this baby girl has had her fair share of that), the ever-changing habits. Plus the memory of labor and delivery is not so distant, so a first birthday is a remembrance of that glorious yet rough day when this sweet baby entered the world. All that to say, we celebrated, but we both enjoyed a few treats.

She enjoyed some skinny chocolate (homemade coconut oil/cocoa powder chocolate) and strawberries for breakfast

Eleanor is following in the footsteps of Thomas and Adeline, and has spent the last few months discovering all her food sensitivities. Some of them are already losing strength (she used to throw up within minutes of eating a banana, but she ate half a banana yesterday...big victory!) but her big ones right now are eggs and dairy. So finding a cake she could eat was tricky. It is amazing how much the world of food allergies/sensitives has opened up in the last few years. Adeline couldn't eat wheat without breaking out in a blistering rash, so this is her first birthday picture:

Who needs cake? How about ice cream?

 But now there are all sorts of allergy-friendly recipes out there, so we tried this Ooey Gooey Butter Cake from the Spunky Coconut. I think I spread it too thin, so it was more like a cookie bar, but she loved it, and it made this mama's heart glad! It is dairy, grain, sugar, and egg free, so we could both eat it. I'd make it again, only in a smaller pan.

Not happy to have her hands held back from that cake while we took the time to sing a round of Happy Birthday. Don't cross a one year old!

Fortunately, all the angst was soon forgotten, and cake enjoyed.

Happy Birthday to the girl who makes our hearts sing! I really do think that having babies- while physically harder with age- only gets sweeter as the years go by. You start to realize how fleeting these days are, and the harder parts seem less of an inconvenience (although they don't go away!). Plus, now we have a whole group of people to enjoy her baby antics. We love you, Eleanor!

I might be gloating

Or just praising the Lord for the little things. Take your pick.

I am always teasing Warren about how much time he spends perusing Craigslist. I don't think he actually does spend inordinate amounts of time, but he checks a few categories every day. Thanks to him we have an extra fridge for eggs (free!). We have a meat slicer that is super handy for making deli meat. We have a food dehydrator that came new in the box and the person just wanted to get rid of it because she wasn't on speaker terms with the friend who gave it to her. (?) I could go on and on.

Over Christmas I joked about needing a new vacuum cleaner, and wanting a Dyson. Warren had never heard of the pricey suckers (he knows outside tools better) so it was quickly determined that would not be happening any time soon. No worries...my old vacuum still works, so it wasn't a need anyway.

But then lo and behold, what did he find on Craigslist, but a Dyson for $80! The man was moving back to China and needed to sell all his worldly possessions in a short timespan. I knew I would love it, but I would gladly do commercials for that company, for free. I even used the brush attachment to clean the boys off after their haircuts yesterday. I just sucked the hair right off their back and heads! The hose attachment reaches all the way to the top stair from the bottom of the staircase! I can't use too many exclamation points! We vacuum all the time now, just for fun!

Even the baby likes it.

Could have been awesome

Avacados on sale for $0.50 each= lots of guacamole. Did you know you can freeze mashed up avacado? So I bought 25, because we're big fans of guacamole around here. Good fat and protein, and the baby loves it. But alas, it was not meant to be. And my antique 1960's turquoise bowl was also not meant to be. Some days are just like that. Even in Austrailia.