Holidays In, Holidays Out

Well the Holidays have come and gone for our new little family and they were quite enjoyable. Sorry for the lag in posts lately but with traveling and having guests we just haven't had any time to post! Our holidays started out with a trip up to Eau Claire to see Grandpa and Grandma Anderson and Eli was a traveling champ! Eli went on his first sleigh ride with the Anderson clan and was treated to lots of hugs and smiles from the Anderson clan. Eli proved again that he is a car champ as we decided to drive back on December 23rd during a nasty snow/rain/ice storm. It took us about 4 hours to get home and he slept most the way and when he did wake up he just hung out quietly in the carseat. The roads were pretty terrible and we were glad to not have to stop to nurse.

We spent Christmas Eve and Christmas Day as a family and it was great. We were able to go to Blackhawk for church on Christmas Eve and were able to celebrate Christ's birth with Aunt Mary and Uncle Jon, which is always a good time. Then we came home and Eli went to bed, so Joel and I enjoyed some great steaks, wine and cookies in front of the fire. On Christmas morning, Eli has begun the age old tradition of waking up early to open christmas stockings. Joel and I are realizing that our days of sleeping in have passed, not to be found again until Eli is a lot older! Eli did have one small gift under the tree from mom and dad but he didn't seem to be all that interested in presents (see photo)! I wonder what it would be like if we did not give gifts around Christmas? Maybe he would realize earlier the true meaning of this season. At church, we participate in a new tradition called Advent Conspiracy in which we reclaim how we do Christmas. The idea is to Spend Less, Give More, Love All in order to Worship Christ Fully this season. So instead of spending oodles of money on gifts, we spend a little less each year and give to clean water projects and other assorted projects around the world. I would love for Eli to grow up with this definition of Christmas and not one of a season packed with business and presents. I want to take time with my family and not worry about the "perfect" meal or the "perfect" present. I want to try and mimic Eli's lack of interest in presents and hopefully an interest in serving and loving others fully.

(Can't quite open presents yet!)

After our family celebration, Grandma and Grandpa Grace came to visit Eli and a good time was had by all! We celebrated with the traditional Grace family breakfast (sticky buns, sausage, fruit, coffee, eggs), a trip to the yarn store and Eli got to experience a few of my Dad's famous stories about Eli. Apparently, Eli just finished running Grandma's Marathon, the Ironman, traveling to Antartica, discovering the solution to global warming and how to save the polar bears. Who knew! My parents babysat so Joel and I could go on a coffee date which was absolutely lovely! We went to Barriques and then I spent my Christmas money on a little treat at Orange Tree Imports. The weekend was capped off by my beef stew, some rousing games of rummikub (best game ever!) and some nummy cinnamon-craisen bread (recipe thanks to Aunt Joanna). All in all, it was a very excellent visit and Eli was nice enough not to cry too much at night for grandma and grandpa.

We've just finished up the holiday season with our very own New Years Celebration, which Eli wanted to celebrate 5 times last night (equals not a lot of sleep for Joel and I)! We went out to dinner with some friends but then had to call it an early night because Eli goes to bed around 8 pm. So Joel and I stayed up almost to midnight watching a movie and enjoying some adult beverages. Now we're into 2010 and who knows what this year will bring! What we do know, is that it brings new adventures and exciting milestones. This will be the year that Eli says his first word, rolls over, crawls and then begins to walk and who knows what else! We wish all of you a happy new year and a happy start to 2010!

Football as a Babysitter

On Sunday we found out Eli is a big fan of Sunday Night Football. Not sure he should be that drawn to the TV this soon in life. The ol' Electric Baby Sitter.

Now this is his reaction to Brett Favre throwing a touchdown for the Vikings.

Birth Pictures

So I got up the nerve last night to look at the whole roll of pictures that were taken during my labor. My friend Kim was on picture duty during our birth and she did a beautiful job! It was interesting to see the process unfolding in pictures because some of the more painful memories of my labor are starting to fade (thank goodness). So I hope you'll indulge me as I share some of the photos with you, don't worry I edited out the ones that only Joel and I get to see!
Pardon the bored look on Joel's face, there wasn't many active things for him to do in labor except for support me. That support was HUGE for me, I didn't even want Joel to leave to go to the bathroom.Eli's heartbeat is being checked by Britt in the picture. They check the heartbeat about every 5-10 minutes in active labor. I was beginning to feel the urge to push and was trying to get the strength to do it.In order to push more effectively, they had me get out of the tub and onto the toilet (hey, it's a natural place to push!)For the actual birth, I was on my hands and knees. We were all lined up in our bathroom ready to bring Eli into the world.After Eli came out, I quickly wanted to get into bed. I was cold (because of all the hormones) and just wanted to lay down. It was great to be able to rest immediately in our bed and to be with the people I love. I don't regret or wish that I had given birth anywhere else than besides my own home. I realize this in not a choice that all people agree with or feel that they could make but I just know it's was right for us. (Though I did have a few moments where I was like "Where's my epidural?")

Christmas Time...

It's beginning to feel like Christmas time now that we have copious amounts of snow on the ground! Nothing like 18 inches of snow to get you in a festive mood. Last weekend we went with Jon and Mary to cut down our Christmas tree and Eli tagged along for the ride. I was quite excited to take him to get a tree even if he won't remember it later on in life. We went to a tree farm that is owned by one of my coworkers. We went there last year and had a blast, we had the top pick of any tree and were able to enjoy some hot cider with "papa and mama juice" in it (bourbon,mmmmm). So we decided to visit the same farm again and found our tree pretty quickly.

I'm not sure Eli cared, seeing as he was sleeping in the carrier the whole time! But we did make sure to snap some pictures, enjoy!



And, if you've been paying attention to the news or live in the midwest; you'll know that we just had our first big snowstorm of the year. In Madison, we got around 18 inches of snow and it is bitterly cold right now! It's weird how your perspective changes when you have a child. Yesterday morning, all I wanted to do was show Eli the snow and play with him in the it. Too bad he's only 2 months old and doesn't really understand what's going on around him. Next year I'll be even more excited to go sledding and build snowpeople with him because he'll actually remember it! I felt like a little kid again yesterday. Joel had a snow day because the buses weren't running, we had a snowball fight with 3 of the neighborhood kids, Joel helped people dig out and we went snowshoeing last night at the Edna Taylor Conservancy by our house. We even have a snowman in the yard thanks to our neighbors! There is nothing better than the first snow storm of the year, I hope I remember that in March when I'm fed up with the weather!
We even got enough snow that I had to snowshoe a path to the compost bin and we've lost a few of our lilac bushes. Oh how exciting it is that Eli was born in the midwest!

The Windy City

Our two-year anniversary celebration. We left the apartment at 9:30am, Eli in tow, and used buses and trains to visit the Shedd Aquarium, Spice House in Old Town, Dunkin Donuts to feed Eli, Millennium Park, the Art Museum and a Wildfire restaurant on north of downtown. All in one day without the aid of a GPS or iPhone. Not bad for having an infant along. We’ve found kids make it a little more difficult to travel but not impossible. You just have to be flexible.

Wednesday night we went to our good friend Jordan’s apartment on the north side of Chicago. We ate dinner, caught up, had our first taste of our home brew (quite nice), and Jordan got to hold Eli. It was great to catch up as it had been a year since we’ve seen Jordan. A lot happens in a year. Thursday Jordan left to go to back to Iowa to be with his wife and generously let use their apartment Thursday night.

At the Aquarium we were led by “spirit guides” (aka women in funny looking costumes interpretive dancing) through their special presentation of “FantaSea”. Penguins walked around in the crowd, beluga whales did tricks, and dolphins did their usual flips. They even had a lady in a canoe come from behind the crowd and lower into the pool from the roof. It was quite the show.

In the evening we spent a couple hours walking through the new modern art wing of the Chicago Art Museum. I cannot say I appreciate modern art. One room had a huge cluster of fluorescent lights hanging from the ceiling and sheet rock on the ground with a random pattern of holes smashed in it. Another was white canvas on the wall. Really? By far the strangest and most disturbing was the “crazy clown room”. Six screens were set up, one on each sidewall and four on the front wall with a 30-minute loop of a clown doing different creepy things. One screen had the clown tugging on some broom or stick hang off the ceiling, another had the clown sitting on the ground with his legs out front hitting his toes together, and to top it off one had a clown sitting on a toilet in a bathroom stall stuffing toilet paper in between the pages of a magazine. To top off the creepiness a the sound of the clown crying, grunting and screeching was coming from the speakers. By far best part of the night was watching people looking at the “art” confused, shocked, or laughing and then turn to see Eli and have look at him with smiles and admiration. Both the working man (aka security guards) and art connoisseurs look at Eli with awe. The Creator made Eli much more beautiful and intricate than anything man put on those walls (or floor in some cases).

The Soothing Nose

This is not recommended by the CDC. Do not try at home.