Valentine's Day!

I hope every had a wonderful and love-filled day.

Now that Tristan has opened his gift I can tell you what I got him.

 Valentine's day can be so Frou-Frou, so I really try and get Tristan some "Manly" things.

You really can't go wrong with a nice shirt emblazoned with their favorite team.

Seahawks Celebration Circle Nike Tech Shirt

Tristan and I don't drink much, but when we do imbibe we like the good stuff. Dry Fly is our local distillery and they are fantastic. Our go-to whiskey is the Washington Wheat, but for a special occasion like Valentine's Day, I got him the Port Finish. Mmmmm

Dry Fly Port Finish Wheat Whiskey

I also ordered Paddle Your Own Canoe by Nick Offerman. We are big fans of the show Parks and Rec. and Offerman's character Ron Swanson is our favorite.
I don't know if you can get much manlier than Nick Offerman.

And finally, a Dollar Shave Club membership.
I actually signed Tristan up last Father's Day but he's still really digging it so I thought it was worth mentioning. He gets 4 new blades every month auto-shipped to our door. They send out an email before they ship to make sure you don't need anything else.
He really loves the Dr. Carver's Shave Butter, so we add that to our order about once every three months. We're currently on the $6/month plan, but if he's really nice I might be bumping him up to the $9/month "Executive" level soon. Plus their "web commercial" is worth watching just because it's hilarious. Watch it!

Calvin really liked his new puzzle a lot, and we'll be reading his new book at bedtime tonight.

Tristan surprised me with flowers, a cute card, the Bruno Mars Unorthodox Jukebox CD
AND...
Tickets to go see Bruno's concert this summer!

I'm SO EXCITED!!!

Now to find someone to watch Calvin overnight....

Valentine's for Toddler Boys.

Valentines Day is coming up and it's a bit tough to find age appropriate boys stuff to celebrate a holiday represented by hearts, pink and frills.

We're not going to go over the top or anything, but I love any reason to celebrate.

I even decorated the chalkboard in Calvin's room for the occasion.

Here's what we're getting our little love bug.

Since Calvin is a boy, I prefer an understated, yet still festive, Valentine's shirt.

My mom got this Love graphic long-sleeve tee for him and I think it's perfect.

Although, I'm really loving this Most Eligible Bachelor Tee but couldn't find it anywhere in his size.

Some One-Piece Jammies are always on the list.

We love the I Love You series of books by Caroline Jayne Church, they're sturdy board books, with wonderful illustrations and a simple but beautiful message. We already have "How do I love you?" and "I Love You Through And Through ", so "Goodnight, I love you." will be a perfect addition to our bed time story selection.

And a Melissa and Doug Chunky Puzzle. These wooden puzzles are perfect for little hands and are a great way to work on color and shape recognition.

I got a couple little things for Tristan too, but he reads my blog, so I'll have to wait to share that with you guys on Friday.
I hope everyone has a wonderful Valentine's day!

Eczema Update & Homemade Baby Wash

The weather here has been very cold and extremely dry.

It's been almost a year since my original post about our battle with Calvin's eczema and with the weather wreaking havoc on everyone's skin, I figured it's the perfect time for an update.

For the most part, we've gotten his skin under control, but we can't just ignore it. Eczema is always waiting in the wings trying to come back.

The last two days we've been outside in the snow, playing and sledding so his cheeks are definitely a bit more red than usual, but are not too bad considering.

I took this picture this morning, no filter and untouched.

Please remember, I am not a doctor and these are not medical recommendations. This is just what works for us in our home.

Currently we're only bathing Calvin every other night in luke warm water (93°- 95°F).

If he's really flared, I will put a Tbls. or two of baking soda in his bath water.

I've been making his baby wash using this recipe:

1/3 C Dr. Bronner's Unscented Baby Mild Liquid Castile Soap

1/3 C Coconut Oil - Melted

1/3 C Filtered or Distilled Water

*A few drops of Lavender Essential Oil (optional)

Mix all ingredients and pour into an empty foaming soap dispenser.

Shake a little before each use as it tends to seperate.

 *If eczema is really flaring I recommend omitting the lavender.

To wash his hair I switch between using the homemade baby wash and the Exederm baby shampoo which we still have! It's lasted almost a year and we've had great results with it.

After bath time I lotion his body up with Curel Itch Defense Lotion.

I'm kind of a hippie at heart and would really like to find a more natural or homemade lotion to use for him, but I've tried EVERYTHING and nothing works as well as the Curel. 

When his face looks good I just slather him in coconut oil or Exederm Intensive Baby Moisturizer, Coconut oil is great but during this winter weather it's just not enough. When his face looks bad, I will use a prescription hydrocortisone balm. 

I try not to use this to often because it is a steroid, but it works wonders when we need it.

Before we had the prescription balm, we had success using Neosporin Eczema Essentials Hydrocortisone Anti-itch Cream, but honestly, the Rx is cheaper and will probably last until the kiddo is 20.

My last recommendation,  if you have a young baby, is to put mittens on them as much as possible.

They're cheap and they'll keep those razor sharp little baby nails from ripping up their skin and aggravating the rash and making it worse.

I hope this has been helpful.

If you have any questions or need me to clarify anything, please feel free to comment here or email me personally. I would be more than happy to hear from you. 

Crock Pot Pulled Pork

As promised...

This is probably one of the easiest recipes in my repertoire.

It's so quick to go together, and is a total crowd pleaser.

I've even doubled it for large gatherings. Just cook on low for 7-8 hours.

Let me know if you try it.

Enjoy!

Super Bowl Sunday!

I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend!

 

Super Bowl Sunday is usually a fun day with family and friends for us.

This year was a bit different.

Tristan has been a Seahawks fan since he was little and the nerves were really setting in, so we decided it would be best to stay home. He didn't want to be distracted and if, heaven forbid, they lost, he would've probably needed some alone time.

Staying home didn't keep us from having fun though.

We all put on our Seahawks gear and played with Calvin's Hawks football.

His face cracks me up! He was being such a goofball.

We even had festive socks!

I made Crock-Pot Pulled Pork Sandwiches topped with Coleslaw and all washed down with hard cider.

I got the pulled pork recipe from a co-worker a couple years ago and I've been tweeking it to make it perfect.

It's so super easy and I promise, promise to put the recipe up on Wednesday.

I also wanted something sweet, so I whipped up a batch of Salted Caramel Pretzel Bark.

It tastes even better than it sounds.

And to make it Super Bowl appropriate, I sprinkled it with Seahawk colored dark chocolate M&M's.

Mmmmmmm...

Confession time: I didn't have any chocolate chips in the house, so I gathered up a bunch of chocolate left over from Christmas and chopped it up. I figured I was just going to melt it over the top anyway.

Totally worked!

Calvin sported his lucky Hawks Dipe but ended up sleeping through most of the game.

The game was a blow-out (as all of you know) and it was smiles all around!

This pic is going in the baby book and I'm going to try and snag a newspaper today to pop in there too.

Happy Seahawks fans!

16 Months

This month has been a rough one.

Not just for Calvin, but the entire family.

We've all been sick and poor kiddo, who's never even had a fever before, ended up with the flu last week.

It was the most heart-breaking thing ever.

Friday morning I woke him up and he felt a bit warm.

The thermometer said 99° but he was acting normal and had teeth coming in so I gave him a little ibuprofen and off we went to the babysitters house.

She texted me that afternoon saying his temp was up to 101°. I got him home and we snuggled on the couch. He was exhausted but wouldn't lay his head down. I think his little head was hurting.

By 7pm he was up to 103° so we decided it was time to get to the dr.'s office.

We took him to urgent care and he tested positive for the flu, but since they were closing we had to go to the ER. Once we were taken back his temp was up to 103.6° and his heart rate was close to 200bpm(!) but his lungs sounded good. They gave him more tylenol and started him on tamiflu but wanted his temp and heart rate to come down before we could take him home.

We finally got him home and in bed after 11:00.

Two days later and you'd never know he'd been sick.

He's still fighting a cough (we all are), and he's been extra sleepy and hungry, but he's been in a great mood. I think he's just happy to be well again.

He's got some new trick up his sleeve too.

He says Please which sounds like "Peas"
He says "cheese"
He says "Toes" and knows where they are.

He's started walking on his tip-toes sometimes.

He loves keeping an eye on the dog when I let him out and shuts the door for me when Alfie comes back in.
I swear last week he said his first sentence. I may have be hallucinating, but he dropped something off his high-chair tray and it sounded like he said "Uh-oh, where d'it go?"

When something makes him happy he does this funny belly-rubbing dance. It's sooo cute, but I haven't been able to catch it on video yet. I don't know if he's signing "happy" or if its just some random thing he does, but it's freaking adorable.

We've put him back in swim lessons at the YMCA. Tristan takes him every Saturday. I finally got to go this week and see what they do on their mornings together. It was so fun.

Is there anything cuter than swimming babies?

I still have a ton of catching up to do.

I kid you not, our Christmas decorations are STILL up.

I've vowed to get them down tomorrow so wish me luck.

Shit Storm 2013

The internet is a place where the truth can be bent, if not completely broken, quite easily.

Blogs, Instagram, and Facebook are excellent means of sharing only the best parts of our lives.

But I'm here to tell you that what you see on the screen is only part of the whole picture.

No one is perfect.

(With possibly the exception of Kate Middleton)

So the pictures of perfectly done make-up, and hair, gorgeous homes of moms without a single stray toy in the background and mouth watering photos of the gourmet meals they prepared on a whim are not what they seem.

What they don't show you is the fact that they're still wearing their pajamas at 2:00 in the afternoon or that they just shoved every toy behind the camera to keep it out of view; or the fact that their kid is throwing random toys into the toilet while mom's busy photographing her latest gluten-free, vegan sugar cookies.

Time for a reality check.

*I was not able to find the orginal owner of this image/meme. If it's yours please let me know so I can credit you.

To make a long story short and much less graphic, right after Christmas we dealt with 5 straight days of nearly white, cottage-cheesy and horrendous smelling poo that no diaper, cloth or otherwise, was able to contain.

Calvin was dirtying 4-5 diapers a day with this toxic sludge. I have quite a tolerance for "gross" stuff, not much gets to me, and I was gagging at every dipe change.

Thank goodness for pants or it would have been on EVERYTHING. 

I had to run a load of wash a day, JUST for the poo leaks and I was very worried that my house would never smell right again.

I was a little concerned about Calvin's health because this was very unusual, but he was acting like his normal happy self and wasn't running a fever so I decided not to run him to the doctor and just watch him.

In my research I found that this was something that can happen to kids when they are teething. And wouldn't you know it, he popped through his first molar a few days later.

Teething is such a bitch.

Now, there are times when white poo can be a sign that something is seriously wrong, if you are even questioning whether your kid is ok or not I strongly urge you to call your pediatrician.

To top things off, smack in the middle of our Shit Storm, I came down with a killer cold and was sent off to bed for a couple of days. So my poor (and amazingly wonderful) husband was left to combat the crap by himself. He did an awesome job of taking care of both of us.

I didn't write this post as a way to complain about a (excuse the pun) crappy time in our lives, but to show that no one's life is perfect, that we all have those moments (or days or weeks) that we wish were easier.

And to give people a glimpse into real life with a toddler.

I've said it before and I'll say it again:

Kids are gross, but we love them anyway.