New car

This past weekend, I said goodbye to my beloved red Durango. Jon and I decided to get something with better gas mileage while the Durango would still fetch a good trade-in value (and also before some expensive needed repairs and maintenance this coming year).

Look at how little Nate was when we got the car (he was about 20 months):

Here are Lucy and me making our sad goodbye faces:

So now, we're the proud owners of a minivan. It's a 2011 Chrysler Town & Country. I'll post pictures as soon as the children are healthy and we actually go out to the car!

Sick :(

All three kids came down with a nasty stomach bug over the weekend. Levi is recovered from the worst of it, though he's still so tired. Last night:

This morning, he sat on the stairs waiting for me to finish my shower. This is what I came out to (he's just asleep--I promise):

Nate has been sick the longest, but I'm praying that today is the day he gets better and can keep liquids down. Lucy is still sick, but I am really hoping she'll perk up by the end of the day today.

Ballerina

I love this picture Lucy brought home from school on Tuesday.

Rite of passage

Nate got to go to his first Clippers game last night. Jon said Nate was scared when they arrived because the lights were off and it was loud for the player introductions, but by the end of the 1st quarter he was really enjoying himself.

How did this happen?

Levi tonight

As Jon was telling Levi the story of Adam and Eve tonight at bed time, Levi chimed in: "Adam and Eve ate the fruit! And God gave them a spankin'."

After bed time, Levi called from the bed, "Mama and Daddy, can Nate lie down with me?" (He asks that every once in a while.) We said yes. Then we heard Levi say to Nate, "They said yes! But don't wrestle!"

I love that boy.

GAPS

OK. We're going to do it. We're going to put the whole family on the GAPS diet. My plan had been to put just Nate and me on the diet (and probably "partial participation" for the other two children), but last night Jon said he would do it with us too. I am actually very excited... and nervous too. So for the past couple of weeks, I've been gathering ingredients and supplies that I don't already have, making and storing various dishes (sauerkraut, homemade chicken stock and meat stock), and researching sources for organic ingredients. I think it'll take me a couple more weeks before I'm ready to start, so I'm shooting for a February 1 start date.

Rewind for a minute: have I mentioned the GAPS diet on this blog yet? I might not have! Basically, I've been reading up on it a lot and am finding that gluten-free, casein-free, soy-free might just have been partially/indirectly dealing with Nate's "internal" issues and not fully addressing the real issue. The GAPS diet works in stages, with the introduction/first stage being quite restrictive; you add in more and more foods with each stage until you reach the "full GAPS" diet, which you maintain for a while (think 2 years). Eventually, you introduce dairy (also in stages), but the GAPS diet does remain gluten- and soy free. The staples of the diet are organic/unprocessed meats and broth, lots of fats, soup, cooked vegetables, eggs, naturally probiotic foods (like sauerkraut), and NO grains, starches, or sugar. After the couple of years on full GAPS, the gut should be healed and you can start coming off of the diet and eating other foods (while still eating healthy and making good choices). Basically, it is not a life sentence and has as its primary goal healing of the gut/digestive system so that all foods can again be tolerated.

Dancing

Basketball

Nate has been asking to play a sport for several months (mostly since he saw what it was like when Lucy did gymnastics). I finally found a class for him on our charter school "approved vendor list" (meaning they pay for it) that will work with our schedule. It's a once-a-week basketball class/clinic for ages 5-7. This afternoon was his first class. He was so excited--and he told me he was also nervous. But it went great and he loved it. I wondered if he would get frustrated about being near the bottom of the class skills-wise, but thankfully he didn't notice or mind.

Nervous on the way there:

In class:

And my favorite of the day: the "defensive stance" video:

Toothless

This is definitely a favorite stage of mine.

Virginia trip

We had a GREAT visit in Virginia for Christmas. We just got home last night.

The trip was full of good food, laughter, relaxing days, coffee, wrestling with Uncle Greg, scavenger hunts, a lost top tooth, time with family, and even a tiny bit of snow. It's always sad to leave but nice to come home. :)