Happy Birthday, Nate!

We have all been looking forward to Nate's birthday, but Nate most of all. We had made some fun plans for the weekend but weren't sure how they'd work out since it's been pretty cold (for Vegas) here and we had a chance of rain/snow.

Nate's day started with a Lego race car and a race car shirt to go along with the theme. Nate loved working with Daddy to put it together. We went with Grandma and Grandpa to see Frozen. About two thirds of the way through Nate was very adamant about leaving the movie. He's had a tough time with movies before so I'm not surprised. The story line wasn't very interesting for a boy who loves cars,  and he is very sensitive to scary or emotional parts. Eddie took him out while the rest of us finished the movie. He wasn't permanently traumatized luckily. Nate also got to help me make whipped cream frosting for his cupcakes. He frosted his own cupcake and loved licking the beater from the mixer.

Before meeting Eddie's parents for dinner, Nate opened the presents from us and Grandma and Grandpa. He was thrilled with all of it.

 Surprisingly Nate spent some time using the abacus before moving on to opening the rest of his presents. We will have some fun learning to count and make patterns with it. Looks like Nate has counting to 10 down so we need to work on counting up to 20 next.

We went to dinner with both sets of grandparents at Sammy's before heading back to the house for cupcakes and the rest of Nate's presents. Nate blew out his candles and immediately abandoned his cupcake for presents. He still hasn't eaten it.

Nate got everything he's been wanting - Legos, monster trucks and tractors. I think we could skip presents on Christmas. ;) He was using his excavator to scoop Legos into his dump truck right away. 

Today we were unsure if we'd make it to the Mini Gran Prix like we had planned because of the weather, but we decided to go. We bundled up and it wasn't too bad. Nate was in heaven. I know we'll be going back. 

Nate had his first go around on the Kiddie Karts by himself. The next two times there were a bunch of kids. He did pretty good driving, and he loved it every time.

Eddie took Nate on the faster go karts. He loved that too!

Happy 4th Birthday, Nate. This day 4 years ago changed our lives forever in the best ways. We love watching you grow and change. You always make us laugh with your witty remarks that are well beyond your age. We love your quirky personality and how smart you are in so many ways. We look forward to watching you grow up, but don't grow too fast.

Thanksgiving Weekend

 We spent Thanksgiving with Eddie's parents since Mom and Dad escaped for the holiday weekend to Oregon. We had some yummy food (gluten free I might add) and had a great time hanging out and enjoying Nate's antics as usual.

On Friday we had a normal day since Eddie had to work. Nate spent some time outside riding his bike as usual. He has been getting more confident on his bigger blue bike now that he is a pro on his smaller bike. The other bike is really too small for him so we have been encouraging him more and more to try the bigger bike. Grandpa even told him he would have a horn (oh great!) and a license plate with his name once he got better at riding the bigger bike. I think he's just about earned those.

Taking a break with Max from the Grinch

Today we decorated for Christmas. Nate could hardly stand that he had to wait until today. He is obsessed with decorations, Christmas music and movies. The holidays are so much more fun with kids.

Nate's new ornament for this year that he picked out himself

A handprint ornament we had made last year. He has grown SO much this year.

We have some fun plans for Nate's 4th birthday next Saturday. We kind of have a race car theme going, but we are not having a party. Just nice and simple family celebration. Nate has been asking everyday if his birthday is today. Don't grow up too fast little man.

Our Cleanse

By now I'm sure most of you have heard that Eddie and I are doing a cleanse and many of you probably thought we were nutty because there are some crazy cleanses out there. Several years ago I read the book Clean by Dr. Alejandro Junger. Everything he had to say really resonated with me, but I wasn't in a place where I felt I could do a cleanse of any kind for fear of losing more weight. Essentially Dr. Junger explains how much of our well being stems from the health (or lack of) in our gut and how our toxin overload can affect our health greatly. The Clean cleanse is a detox cleanse. There is so much more detail and eye opening information in the book that I could go on and on about, but the book explains it better.

I revisited the book several months ago and discovered a second book called Clean Gut.

Clean Gut talks about the same principles, but focuses more on restoring gut health than doing a detox. Now you may wonder why Eddie and I even considered doing a cleanse since we eat pretty healthy as it is (gluten free, no processed sugars, minimal artificial/chemical ingredients, etc.). I've been struggling for a long time with low energy, brain fog and skin problems and had not found a solution yet. I felt there was something more I was missing that was causing these issues for me, possibly other food sensitivities that I hadn't identified or possibly way too much bad bacteria in my gut. Eddie and I decided to do this together.

Now this isn't a juice fast cleanse or anything crazy like that. There are lots of solid foods involved, but the choices are more limited. I could never do a cleanse that involved a liquid diet. Here are the basics of the cleanse:

Length: 21 days and then you slowly start introducing forbidden foods back in to identify reactions

What you can eat:

• 1 cup of berries a day (no other fruit, this is a low sugar way of eating)
• chicken, beef, turkey, fish (the best quality grass fed, antibiotic free, wild caught, etc)
• Veggies (lots and lots, but no potatoes or beets)
• Good fats (coconut oil, avocados, etc)
• Nuts (no peanuts or peanut butter)
• small amounts of quinoa
• eggs
• coconut and almost milk
• stevia (an herb used to sweeten that doesn't spike blood sugar)
• water or green tea
• vinegars, spices, herbs, salt and pepper, 100% raw chocolate/cacao, mustard, wheat-free-tamari

Plus you are taking very potent B vitamins and other supplements that help wipe out bad bacteria and pre/probiotics to add good bacteria back in, and digestive enzymes to aid digestion

For Eddie and I this is not a huge change from our current diet, but it was still challenging at times. We usually eat more fruit. We do eat rice and beans and use honey and maple syrup to sweeten things. So that being said, even though the change in diet was not huge for us, we both that felt positive effects. 

I was hopeful about seeing results, but really not sure if I would notice any big changes. I was amazed when after only a few days my energy levels skyrocketed. I used to crash in the afternoons and if I allowed myself I could have napped on most days, and some mornings I would wake up and feel sluggish all day. With the exception of a few days over the last few weeks, I have not felt those energy dips. Once I'm out of bed (usually around 5:45 during the week) I'm awake and alert. No more brain fog. I haven't felt this good for so many days in a row in I don't know how long. Plus my skin has been slowly, but surely, improving. 

Eddie I think had less to gain because he's always been in better health, but he says he's even noticed a difference. 

Now the key is maintaining this good health we've been feeling. We are going to slowly add foods back in to see if we notice a reaction (headaches, fatigue, aches and pains, stomach issues, skin issues). We will start by adding in some dairy. Neither of us drink milk, but we do have yogurt and cheese so not having those things for 3 weeks will allow us to really pinpoint a reaction if there is one. 

This cleanse has been worthwhile for both of us even though some days we just wanted to stop and go back to our usual way of eating. It has allowed us to realize we can feel better and to try and keep that going. We eat differently than a lot of people and view food and health differently, so this may not be something you ever consider doing for yourself. But, don't settle for not feeling your best because there are changes you can make (to your diet, lifestyle and way of thinking) that can help you move toward a healthier you. 

3 Almost 4

It seems like Nate has grown up so much now that he is "3 almost 4." He's taller and heavier. He seems more like a kid than a toddler now. It is scary and fun and easier and harder at the same time. It's been ages since I blogged so here is a quick update on Nate's antics this week.

Monday we took a hike out near Red Rock in an area called Calico Basin. Eddie had hiked there with friends on Sunday and recommended it. It was beautiful and Nate and Phantom loved climbing around. We also saw some rock climbers that Nate was obsessed with. He even went into a full crying meltdown when I said it was time to go. In the car he told me that he needed a carabiner clip and some bungee cords so he could be a rock climber when he got home. Silly guy.

Rock climbers

On Monday evening Nate decided that he wanted to try and ride his small bike without training wheels. We've had the training wheels off for a while and have been using it more as a balance bike. Eddie took him up around the cul-de-sac a few times and then suddenly he was riding. Grandpa has the video of his first time alone. 

Tuesday Daddy was busy, but Grandpa went out to keep an eye on him. Nate hopped on his little bike and just started riding. Then the guys talked him into trying his big blue bike without training wheels, which he rode successfully. But, then he forgot to break and crashed into a cactus. I didn't see all of this, but I heard his wailing from inside. He had a few cactus needle tips stuck in his side and some pretty good scratches, but he was fine after some essential oils and some Scooby Do bandaids. 

I was determined to see him ride and get some videos today. He stayed off the bigger blue bike, but rode the red one pretty successfully. He is still wobbly and puts his feet down to slow down, but I'm impressed at how fast he caught on. We were discussing on Monday how you would have a hard time convincing Nate to do or try something before he is ready, but once he's ready, watch out. He picks things up fast.

We've also had the pleasure to watch Haddie yesterday and today since Amy had Baby Boy Zeleski yesterday. I won't say more since it is her story to tell someday when she has time or energy.

Eddie is in his 4th week back at Zappos and is finally moving downtown tomorrow. I have been tutoring twice a week and subbing on Fridays in addition to keeping Nate busy. Eddie and I are doing a 3 week cleanse, but I will post more about that in 2 weeks when we finish. So far so good. I will try to post some pictures from our trip to Tahoe before we moved and pictures from a hike on Eddie's birthday.

Tough Mudder Tahoe 2013

I guess sloshing through mud for 10+ miles last October wasn't enough for a lifetime so Eddie signed up to do it again in Tahoe. The event was held at Northstar Ski Resort in the Truckee, CA area. We had a 45 minuted drive to the parking area and then rode a school bus for 45 minutes to the location of the event. Not ideal, but we missed the window for the parking at the event. It wasn't too bad actually. The area is beautiful. When we got there we could immediately see that it was much bigger and busier than the one in Beatty last year. Eddie registered, found his group and then we went off to wait for his start time around 10:30am.

We caught him at the starting line and then immediately took a chairlift up to the top of the mountain to catch one of his events. He had several events and a several mile run up to the top of the mountain. We wouldn't have been able to see any of the obstacles for that section of the race. The chairlift was an interesting experience for me since I have trouble with heights. Not to mention have Nate on there with us. I had a death grip on him and the bar over our laps the whole time. It was a beautiful view though. At the top we sat and ate some lunch and watch other people going through the Electric Eel while we waiting for Eddie's group. We waited for quite a while and thought we may have missed them somehow, but we finally saw them. Then we headed back down the mountain on the chairlift to try and catch some more of his events.

At this point the day for me got more frustrating. We were supposed to take a different lift over in another direction to the next set of events, but it was running really slow. By the time we got there we had missed a few events, but caught up with his group and saw a few things. We had to do quite a bit of walking ourselves to catch him. Then we needed to head back down the mountain to catch the last 2 events. We couldnt take the lift so we hiked down. We did it, but it was a pain and took a while. We ended up missing the last 2 events and Eddie found out after he had finished. I was bummed that we missed him finishing and it had been a long day. We jetted out of there pretty quickly so we could catch a bus back to the parking area before the lines got really long. Long day for everyone, but definitely an interesting experience.

On the bus with his new Camelback from Grandma and Grandpa

Every wave had this many people. Craziness!

Eddie hopping the wall to get into the starting pen

Nate and I on the chairlift. The 4 of us rode together.

Lunch at the top of the mountain

Nathan's self portrait

The Electric Eel - yes they get shocked

His group from work

Muddy hand from high fiving Daddy

Walk the Plank

Cage Crawl

All done - the orange headband means he finished

Eddie isn't signed up for another race yet, but it's only a matter of time. They have another one in Tahoe in September, but we'll miss that one since it's coming up so soon.