13 months and happy holidays

A little red rocking chair with his name (and his Santa jacket from last Christmas)

Happy holidays! Our first Christmas in the house was nice and relaxing. We kept things simple and low-key. No stress, no fuss and simply happy. We spent Christmas eve wrapping the few presents we got for family. I made Delicious small flash cards with a message on the back. I wanted something handmade to commemorate his first real Christmas. He loved it! The box especially! Ostentation 0; meaningful simplicity 1.

Delicious is 13 months and developing  exceedingly fast. Right before our eyes. In the week he's been walking, he's become more confident each day and now can walk in circles and do right turns. Today he walked around the kitchen and family room for hours. We put up gates in the two entry ways to that part of the house (having not had any luck with gates for the stairs). And it's made life so much easier. We don't have to chase after him so much. He points to identify several things: lights, his foot, his nose (which he's now putting his finger in), his head (sometimes), his foot and his parents. He actually SAYS "dada", "ball", (sometimes) "boohhhk" (loves books and are his favorite go-to toy...knows how to turn pages), and imitates all sorts of sounds. But the best is that right before Christmas, he started to say "mama"! What a great gift! The walking and now MAMA! He's always known the word, as when G asks where mama is, Delicious would either look or gesture at me. Just so sweet. As I was rocking him during nap time today, he looked up at me with sleepy eyes, smiled brightly, and said softly "mama". So beautiful and touching! Brings a tear to my eye just writing this.

I think his molars are coming in as he is getting really drooly again and has woken up in the middle of the night the past couple nights. We have brought him in to bed with us. But I don't want to get back into that bad habit, so will stop that. And this month we found out he has a food allergy to eggs. We did the serum test as well as the skin test confirming. We'll just avoid the particular food, and we're not big eaters of it, so it won't be that much of a problem. Poor guy. So we have epi-pens at the ready ($25 bucks each). His favorite big people food is pasta and meat sauce (did you know that dried pasta doesn't contain eggs?). He also regularly eat Greek yogurt with jam and is now on cow's milk which we blend with prune juice because it makes him constipated otherwise. He's healthy with a great disposition and we're so lucky to have him!!! He's such a love.

Walking! Our Baby is officially a toddler

When we picked Delish today, we were met at the door with my mom immediately saying, "He's walking!" And as she put him down, Delish waddled over to us! It was breathtaking...kind of like the first time he smiled. Our baby is officially a toddler. Bittersweet sigh.

Holiday Stuff

Hi friends! It's been a while. Holiday stuff has kept me away. Here are some snapshots of our first tree shopping trip and some Christmas decor.

I tried to keep things simple and to not spend too much. The wreath (and table tree, which isn't pictured) are made of the most beautiful dyed wood. We got it as a gift from G's parents a couple years ago. The garland I made MYSELF from cuttings off a pine tree from the yard.

Wooden wreath: a gift from G's parents a couple years ago

pine garland I made from cuttings from a tree in our yard

As for our first real Christmas tree, we opted for a small tree after seeing our neighbor's Charlie Brown style Christmas tree. I think I like its diminutive size. Kind of like Mr. Delicious: Little tree for a little boy.

Delicious' first tree shopping experience

only $35 (it's a small tree)

keeping it simple: little tree for a little boy

Speaking of our little boy, we took him to the historic general store in town (bonus that we could avoid the mall) to visit Santa for the first time. He was terrified. Stranger danger, indeed!

waiting in line at the old general store for Santa

with Santa's helper

stranger danger!

not happy

Last week, we hosted a holiday happy hour with our neighbors and went to our first neighborhood party.Very nice.



We also sent out our Christmas cards. I used tinyprints and added photos from Father's Day (that Felicia and Rob shot in the alley near our old place in the city) and a couple that our friend, Graham, took after Delicious' birthday party a couple weeks ago. The rest I took myself. A short brief message on the back reads: "Big things in 2011: We moved from the city to a house we built in the burbs...where Delicious turned ONE!" I anticipate the notes will get longer as the years go on. But like many things this first year, we wanted to keep it very simple.

Hope you all are enjoying the season!

Delicious' First Birthday Party: Hand-made, Not-too-kiddy for about $100

For Delicious' first birthday, we wanted to do something low-key and easy, but somewhat elegant, relatively speaking. Something not-too-kiddy  and mainly for adults. Because babies and toddlers don't really remember these parties, right? Plus, it was also kind of a housewarming, as so few people have seen the house since it was completed back in August.



I tried to use things I already had on hand, as well as things that weren't too elaborate or fussy to execute-- but still elegant (i.e. frittata, smoked wild sockeye, etc.). I even simplified Martha's fantastic ham and leek frittata recipe by removing the potatoes (I also made a vegetarian version sans ham--but that was the most I went out of my way). My mother brought home fries and my MIL made a fruit salad.

We opted for cupcakes rather than a big, elaborate cake, because a) they're cheaper and b) we didn't want the cake to go to waste since Delicious would probably eat very little of it. And in fact, he preferred squishing it through his fingers.

Easy hypo-allergenic hippie cupcakes

Anyhoo, the cupcakes I made the night before from a mix. With all the allergies kids have, I was sure to use a hypo-allergenic peanut and egg-free brand: Cherrybrook Kitchen, which turned out amazingly moist. I was afraid these hippie cupcakes would come out dry and bland, but people loved them.

The one single candle identified Delicious' cupcake; bonus that there was no blowing all over everyone's cake

I also made it easy on myself and used frosting from a can (i.e. Pillsbury Easy Frost)! Quick, no mess, and actually tastes terrific (it's kind of along the same lines as glazing your holiday ham with Dr. Pepper: trashy, but good). I used the chocolate and cream cheese flavors.

We had Champagne, water, and juice available for everyone. I tried to limit the variety of things to keep it... simple.

A combination baby birthday and adult Champagne brunch

Juice for the kids (and whomever); beautiful pitchers we got from the estate sale for almost nothing.

Speaking of simple, for the decorations, I used scraps of fabric (that I had cut into triangles for another use last year) for the bunting. I just hot glued them to some twine. I like that I'll be able to use the bunting again for other birthdays and occasions.

Bunting of salvaged fabric scraps and rope twine

Simple party decor and stuff we got at the estate sale (the utensil basket, apothecary jars, and party trays=$20)

I also made a happy birthday banner that I just printed on some stationery ,through which I laced some rope twine for hanging.

A "happy birthday" banner I printed using a variety of colorful fonts and through which I looped rope twine

And, of course, I had to make hats and favor packs out of things I had laying around the house. I printed the party hat  from OhHappyDay blog.  For the party favors, I cut up brown paper grocery sacs with pinking sheers and sewed them closed. I wrapped them with twine and made a little sticky label with birthday boy's thank you message.

Homemade party hats

Homemade/upcycled party favors

I made little signs for the food out of cheap school chalkboards that I leaned up against some large apothecary jars that I got at the estate sale I mentioned a couple weeks ago. Filled them (and the favor packs) with Halloween candy (the leftovers that we purchased, that is).  AND last minute, I added a photo of Delicious as a newborn and a print out of the invite (which I had created in Picnik and emailed) inside each jar.

Birthday set up

Food label signs; the grandmothers' contribution made it all the easier 

Last minute additions of candy and photos to the jars

We purchased simple flowers and balloons and we were set. All told, it was about $100 for a party of 20 people. (That's not counting Delicious' birthday gift, the awesome wooden rocking horse Vespa, which was about $60 on Amazon.)

The birthday throne

We really enjoyed ourselves, and we think the birthday boy had a great time. Hopefully we can continue the non-fussy-not-too-kiddy-upcycled theme for as many birthdays as we can!

Vroom, vroom!!! A wooden rocking toy (scooter) we'll keep forever...

♥♥♥♥More scenes from the party below♥♥♥♥

Birthday boy didn't nap at all that day, but was in a good mood almost the whole time

Pre-party

Ham and leek frittatas

Wild sockeye and dill goat cheese

Groovy suit from Eileen

What's everyone looking at?

Cake is better for squishing...

Fastidious dad and uncle clean up sticky fingers. Three handsome men!

Surrounded by pretty ladies!

Adoring cousin M

With Baby M, just one month apart!

Baby E and dad, our awesome new neighbors!

Baby G, another awesome neighbor and first buddy to Delicious

Showing off his skillzzz

Checking out the details/refrigerator

Loves balloons and grandma

G playing bartender

Birthday boys; cousin M's birthay is one day and ten years earlier

Grandparents

Adult brunch/baby birthday underscored.

Friends

Grandmas

Buh bye (he kind of knows how to say it)

We bumped our head before this photo

It was quickly forgotten with paper to tear

G and his dad clean up after the party (as is tradition in his family...and now ours)