24 Hours

The countdown has begun. 24 hours until the little one turns 1, which means 24 more hours of misery. They are at me - the others - they won't leave me alone. "What day is it?, How much longer?, Is it Friday?, Can you blow up this balloon for me?" Don't get me wrong, I am really glad they are excited and want to help, but man, oh man. Oh, and, no longer are they satisfied with the gifts I select. I had to drive all the way to Meijer so they could pick out their own gifts. They are very excited about this milestone. I think I can make it.


My strategy is to keep them very busy in the meantime...make your own wrapping paper...

Tennis Anyone?

This is definitely my kind of tennis - sour cream chocolate cake with Swiss meringue buttercream and fondant. An athlete I am not, but I do love making cakes. This giant racket was made for my cousin, the tennis star, who turned 18 the 4th of July. The biggest problem with this cake was finding something big enough to put it on - the cake was about 22 inches long. After trying every tray I own, I came across an unused shelf which did the trick.

Sour Cream Chocolate Cake

From San Francisco A La Carte

2 cups all-purpose flour, unsifted
2 cups sugar
1 cup water
3/4 cup sour cream
1/4 cup butter
1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
2 eggs
4 ounces unsweetened baking chocolate, melted

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Measure all ingredients into a larg bowl and beat for 1/2 minute at low speed, scraping the sides of the bowl constantly. Then beat for 3 minutes at highest speed. Pour into greased and floured cake pans: 2 9 inch pans or 3 8 inch pans. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes. Remove from the oven and cool on a rack.

Sour Cream Chocolate Frosting:
1/2 cup butter
4 ounces unsweetened baking chocolate
4 cups powdered sugar
1 cup sour cream
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

In the top of a double broiler, melt butter and chocolate over barely simmering water. Remove from heat and cool. Add powdered sugar, then blend in sour cream and vanilla, beat until smooth.

The sour cream chocolate frosting is delicious, but the Swiss meringue buttercream is an nice alternative. It pipes nicely and holds up well. One of many recipes can be found at Martha Stewart.com. For this cake, I used 3 1/2 sticks of butter rather than the 4. I just couldn't bring myself to add those last 4 tablespoons. Somehow, psychologically, it made a difference - like I was being virtuous. See, who needs an actual tennis racket when you can save yourself calories like this? I think that may just be "15-love".

Babies, Babies & More Babies

As busy as the days seem, I have actually found a few spare moments to work on some projects. Because I am one of those people who can't seem to function without deadlines and chaos, I have spent some of that time knitting baby gifts. I hesitate to tell you how the remaining portion has been spent... lets just say that, as reluctant as I may have been, a certain book series bit me hard... Anyway, I love knitting for babies for several reasons, one of which is the patterns are so darned cute. The other reason is I can generally finish a project in one sitting, which is somewhat necessary anymore. So, when I haven't been turning pages, I have been knitting these:

For Jackson (his mom loves stars):

The stars are from Itty Bitty Hats by Susan Anderson (a great book), complete with French knots which was something new for me. The hat itself is Woolflower's Whirly Baby Hat Pattern, which is my all time favorite baby hat pattern.

For Jackson's brother Gibson:

I made this little guy into a rattle by tucking a rice filled plastic Easter egg inside his body. I taped the egg up with some clear duct tape just in case, I think it worked because he went though the wash without any signs of sprouting. The robot is a free pattern found at robotknitter.com.

For Rebekah:

The hat was made using the Ann Norling #10 Fruit Cap pattern - I opted for French knots rather than the traditional seeds. The strawberry on the onesie is made from felt and more French knots of course. Practice makes perfect right?

For Olive:

This is a modified version of the Olive You hat in the Itty Bitty Hat book - I just couldn't resist.

So there you have it and since I have another minute, it is back to my pages!

The Big Decision

For my mom's cake this year, I left the flavor decision up to the kids - chocolate, or, Greenie's favorite, yellow with lemon filling. After much deliberation, they decided chocolate was the best choice. =) So, this is what I came up with...a 3-D chocolate lemon cake.

It seems like it has been a long time since I've made a cake, but there are more to come in July! It's a lucky thing because I think I could have used a second piece.

Scurd

Last weekend Laney and Owen were playing outside. When it was time for Laney to go inside for a nap, she said she was worried about Owen being outside by himself. Before going in the house, she ran over to to give him a little bit of advice. She said, "Owen, if you get scurd, just cwy like you are huwt - someone will come wite away."

We are afwaid, very afwaid of what is to come with this one!

And So It Begins...

AJ is 11 months now. I love this age - the attempts at communication, the experimentation with new expressions, the excitement they get from exploration...

Oh, who am I kidding, our house is going on full lock-down. This guy is into everything - he fishes in the dog water, gets stuck in the pantry, tries to gnaw on shoes in the mud room, empties shelves, clears out drawers, tries to climb over the dog... The other day he stuck his finger in a heat register and sliced his finger open. I didn't even see that one coming.

Some things are presenting a bit of a problem though - like the stairs to the basement. I have seen gates with pet doors (Mister is getting to old to jump over), we have a few that open (the kids need to be able to go downstairs to play), and I have seen the ones that you can attach to banisters, but to get all three is a challenge. Sam, of course, has an interim "solution":

Nice hunh? To make it functional, he attached a carabiner with zip ties on the side. Although it is not exactly what I had in mind, at least this "solution" is better than the last (i.e. no drilling).

So, it has begun - the keeping one ear open at all times listening for his shuffle (yes, he is a one armed scooter just like Spencer), the panic that comes from seeing his fingers sticking through the open space between the door hinges, and the heart stopping terror when he pushes on that cardboard.

I love this age, really, I do.

The Recital

It was a much anticipated day and it did not disappoint. Her adoring fans, including Guagua and Popie (my grandparents) from California, watched as she danced on the high school stage. Thankfully she did not get my genes and didn't think twice about getting on that big stage with lights in her eyes. I must admit, I was a still nervous even though it wasn't me getting out there. Laney danced like a little doll in front of a full house and is already asking when she can dance again.

A-OK

AJ is okay - he is allergic to penicillin, but we can definitely deal with that. I have been really surprised by the number of people that are allergic. You think of penicillin as a cure all. As a child prone to ear infections, I certainly drank gallons of that sweet pink stuff. I guess I never thought of someone having a reaction to it, but after this ordeal with AJ, I talked to at least 5 people who said they too were allergic. So, hopefully we are done with the strep for the year and the little guy doesn't get anything from the dog, so we won't even have to think about antibiotics until next year...a girl can hope can't she?

Video Courtesy of Spencer

The Poor Guy

My mom suggested I post something to save AJ from further humiliation in the goofy hat. So, here our little guy in a more dignified outfit.

These were actually taken a few weeks ago and he doesn't look like this at the moment - the poor guy is covered in hives. While changing his diaper yesterday morning, I found welts all over his little body. I looked closer and found his ankles and ears were swollen too. After my freak out and a trip to the doctor, he was diagnosed as possibly being allergic to amoxicillin and we were sent home with some Zyrtec. Great!

Well, today he woke up worse. He is now on Zyrtec, a new antibiotic (just in case it is viral from the Strep throat he had last Friday) and he is on steroids for the hives. We are scheduled to see an allergist Monday. Here is the poor guy post medication:

Hopefully with all of this medication he should be back to his dapper, spot free, hat free, self in no time.

Finding His Words

Unfortunately he doesn't have any words yet, but today he spoke. I think it went something like this:

Okay, these are not cowboy hats - I don't care what she says.

Is it over?

Oh, she's back and with more princess stickers...Don't we have a cat?

It's not all bad, she does smell like frosting.