I'm dreaming of a dye-free Christmas...

My nanny's daughter has a sensitivity to red dye (maybe other dyes, too, I can't remember). I had also heard that some people think food colorings are associated with ADD. So I was reading online about food colorings and they really don't sound like something I want to give Aaron when it's unnecessary. Red #40 is derived from coal tar. How is that edible? We already avoid artificial ingredients in our food (and Trader Joe's is great for finding affordable foods with natural ingredients). So my goal this year was to make cut out Christmas cookies (my favorite by far) without food dyes. But since the colored icing is half the fun, I still wanted to give my cookies some color.

With a little help from Google, I discovered several suggestions for making colored icing without artificial food coloring. You can't get as bright of colors using food sources for coloring, but I was still pretty happy with the results.

One my of my strategies was to make snow flakes that wouldn't need color. I sprinkled some sugar on the the wet icing to give them a little shine.

The lavendar color is from blueberry juice - I just put some frozen blueberries in the microwave for 10 seconds or so and used the juice that came out, run through a sieve since blueberry seeds are small.

The raspberry color is from frozen cherries (similar process as for blueberries, but no worry about seeds).

I made a pale pink using beets. That was a more elaborate project that involved boiling beets ahead of time.

And the orange on the star is from using tumeric. I read to use stale tumeric, but mine wasn't old enough so it did impart some of the flavor to the icing. I also experimented with cinammon for brown, but brown icing was kind of weird.

I heard that pomegranate juice would make a good pink, but I was too cheap to buy expensive pomegranate juice and instead bought a pomegranate. But the color was too pale to affect the color of the icing much. I also tried using orange juice instead of (soy) milk in the icing to achieve a pale orange, but it came out looking about the same as the soy milk icing.

For decorations, I used granulated sugar, dried fruit (blueberries, cranberries, yellow raisens) and some chocolate covered sunflower seeds from Trader Joe's. They are colored with natural food coloring (using things like beets, tumeric, spinach juice). I might try some of the health food stores next time to see if they have some kind of sprinkles that use natural colorings.

First snowball and first Santa encounter

Kim took Aaron to a local attraction that had lights and snow and horse drawn wagons. It was his first experience with snow and he seemed to enjoy it. He doesn't own mittens or gloves since we live in a warm climate, but Kim lent him one of her gloves. (She offered him two, but he would only wear one.)

He also got to roast his own marshmallow, which he enjoyed. It didn't actually get warm since Kim wouldn't let him get close enough to the fire. And she also didn't want to let him hold a stick near other kids for too long.

But his favorite thing seemed to be the horse that was hooked up to the wagon ride. This is by far my favorite picture.

Kim said there was a Santa there. He saw other kids going to see Santa and he wanted to go, too. Since I had said we weren't going to tell Aaron that Santa is real, she texted me to see if that was ok. That was fine with me. He doesn't really understand real/imaginary yet when it comes to characters and I'm not going to keep him away from Santa if he wants to go. So they stood in line for some time, all the while he is excited to see Santa. But when they got to the front, he announced "All done!" and instead of going up to see Santa, they kept walking on by and just waved hello to Santa. This is so characteristic of Aaron to me. She texted me what happened afterwards. We thought it was hilarious.

Bath time with letters

Kim gave Aaron his Christmas present yesterday. She got him these foam letters and numbers which are a big hit with Aaron. Today I used them as an occasion to transition him out of the inflatable tub we've been bathing him in since he was able to sit up. He was outgrowing it, but I wasn't in a hurry to put him straight in the big tub since it takes more water and now I'll have to clean it! He used to enjoy dumping the water out of the little tub into the big tub at the end of bath time, one cupful at a time, but he didn't seem to miss it. In fact, I had to coax him out of the bath despite the water having grown cold and his fingers and toes turned to prunes. This boy loves his letters and numbers.

Holiday Photos

Last year we didn't get our holiday cards out at all. I think it was due to procrastination on getting a picture taken and a business trip I took early December. Oh, and the huge contract job I had just started in November.

Anyway, this year, I wanted to do a picture again, like we did 2 years ago with Aaron. It was harder to coordinate with 2 kids. Thom and I did a photo shoot in Aaron's room one Sunday, but I wasn't happy with the way the sun was shining a bright spot on the left side of the shots. So Monday, when Kim was here to help, I did some more photos in our bedroom. We ended up choosing a photo from the first day. Below are some of the photos from the 2 photo shoots, roughly in order. The ones with all the bows out is when Kim was helping me keep Aaron entertained. We did get out a few bows the first day, but not quite as many. I didn't include the one for our holiday cards - you'll have to wait to see that one when you get it.

By the way, the Christmas tree we used in the photo shoots was made by my brother Jim. Last year, he picked me in our family gift exchange and it was a year we had agreed to do homemade gifts. We don't do that every year, but when we do, people make some very cool presents. Aaron loves this tree, although I have to keep it out of reach so he doesn't pull out the pins holding the ornaments on.

Long overdue photos of Aaron's trip to the pumpkin patch

Way back in October, Kim took Aaron to a pumpkin patch. It was his first time to a pumpkin patch and he loved it! I gave her a $10 budget (hay ride, corn maze, petting zoo - all were $2-3 each) and let her pick what to do. They went on a hay ride and bought corn to feed the animals.

3 Month Update

You can tell by my lack of posts in the last month that I've been busy. It has definitely been a challenge juggling two little ones, work, and house keeping. Updating the blog has been on my mind, but is a lower priority right now. Also, being connected to so many friends and family on Facebook makes it easy to share photos and news there rather than here. (So if you aren't on Facebook and want to see new pictures more often, sign up and find me! Yes, Thom's family, I mean you.)

It's hard to believe Audrey is already 3 months. She is growing so fast and time is flying by. She is smiling more and more, as you can see in her post-bath picture above. And in the pictures below, I tried to catch her smiles on camera as we played with a toy mirror that she seems to enjoy as much as her brother did.

We continue to find that the second baby is easier. So much less stressful which allows us to enjoy her more.

But Audrey is also a little more challenging than Aaron is some respects. She has reflux and also seems to be sensitive to things in my diet, sometimes getting painful gas. I eliminated dairy 2 months ago, but do have a little here and there, mostly butter in baked goods and lately I've had a little eggnog in my coffee. I've started to suspect that she is sensitive to something else though, maybe eggs, after she has been very fussy on days that I've not had any dairy. So I've started to keep a food diary, along with noting the times I feed her and any symptoms out of the ordinary. I couldn't stand eggs while I was pregnant and only recently have been eating them again now that my appetite is returning. So it almost would make sense if she had a sensitivity to eggs, not having much exposure to them in the womb.

I'm not sure how much my diet affects the reflux. Aaron used to spit up quite a bit, but with Audrey, I've noticed that if I set her down too soon after a feeding, even in her bouncy seat which has a slight incline, she'll wake up struggling and sounding gurgley. And sometimes she'll spit up 1-2 hours after eating, which I've read can be a sign of reflux. I mentioned it at her 2 month check up, and the doctor agreed that it sounds like reflux, but since she's gaining weight, they don't treat it. Although she did recommend giving her some cooled chamomile tea in a bottle. She should outgrow the reflux and any food sensitivities in time.

Like Aaron, Audrey has had a fussy time in the evenings, which they like to call colic, meaning "fussiness we can't explain". We've spent many an hour walking her around, which is sometimes the only way to quiet her - and even then, it doesn't always work. But I've noticed in the past week or so that she is doing better in the evenings. And 3 months is supposedly the magic age when they start to outgrow colic, so maybe we are over the worst of it.

The other minor challenges with Audrey, aside from reflux and food sensitivity, is her refusal to be swaddled or take a pacifier. Aaron didn't like to be swaddled at first, but we persisted and as I recall, he only ever struggled when we were swaddling him. Once he was restrained, he calmed down and he slept better and longer. Audrey doesn't struggle when we swaddle her, but even if she is initially calm, she won't go to sleep. She will just struggle and struggle to get her arms out, grunting and crying if she can't. So I've given up. I wrap her in a blanket with her arms out.

Aaron also didn't take a pacifier at first and I almost gave up. I waited until he was 4-5 weeks old to make sure it didn't interfere with breastfeeding. It was my mom who finally got him to take it. And once he took it from her, I don't remember having a hard time with it after that. But we've attempted to get Audrey to take a pacifier many, many times. Kim got her to take one once and she had it in for an hour or so while she slept. Kim kept tapping on it while it was in her mouth. There have been a handful of times someone has gotten her to suck on a pacifier for a few minutes, but mostly my experience is that she wants to suck on her hand or is rooting despite having just been fed, but when I offer her a pacifier, she'll either chew on it, gag, make a face, or reject it, or all of the above. I've tried at least 5 kinds of pacifiers. I don't remember Aaron ever gagging on one, so maybe she has a stronger gag reflex. My friend Heidi said her first daughter was 3 months old before she took a pacifier, so I still hold out hope. There are definitely times when I think it would be helpful. (Especially in the car. She often cries unless the car is moving. So at stop lights, I'm often tapping the break to keep the car rocking a little. When Aaron was little, I gave him a pacifier in the car and that kept him quiet.)

On the plus side, she is growing well, starting to grow out of her 0-3 month outfits. She is only eating about 7 times a day and is going long stretches at night, usually just eating once sometime between 2-5am. She has already recovered from her first cold (which was a little scary for us since she was only 2 months when she got sick). And now that she is smiling, she is so much fun!

Despite some of the challenges, she is such a little cutie and we are really enjoying her!