Happy birthday little boy!

Yes, I am behind in my posts.  It's not like I don't have things to write about, because I do.  I just can't find the time to write.  Work has been crazy, the kids are terrific but crazy, the kitchen has been crazy (I am cooking up a storm), and Adam's work has been crazy, which has led me to do more around the house and with the kids.  The good news is that after 6 weeks of at least one person being sick in our family, everyone is healthy.  Yay!!!

And my little baby had a birthday.  I can't believe he is one year old already.  I remember when he was born. 

And now . . .



We had a small family gathering to celebrate his birthday, and of course, I made him a special cake.

I took the kids to the store to get some decorations.  I wanted to specifically say 1st birthday, so I knew I was limited.  There were 2 for boys, one just blue, and one Sesame Street.  Sesame Street won.  Then I remembered that my friend made an Elmo cake for her daughter's birthday a couple of years ago, and sure enough she still had the directions and the cake pan.  I think it turned out pretty good.  For the cake, I used this recipe.  Now everyone is different when it comes to cakes, and I am not a huge cake fan (I said cake, not sweets people), but I thought this cake tasted amazing!  It's a little more dense than most cakes probably, but I thought it tasted awesome.  I did half organic whole wheat pastry flour and half organic unbleached white flour.  If you have to bake a cake anytime soon, I recommend this recipe. 

And here I am in hte kitchen cooking.  We had dinner at our house for the little guy's party.  I made hummus, homemade trail mix, spaghetti with 2 kinds of meatballs (one had meat and one did not), salad bar, garlic bread, and of course, the cake.  Dinner was a hit.  Everyone enjoyed it!

Everyone was not a fan of the party hats though.  I was lucky to get this one picture with my kids and their party hits (mine too of course).  I can't believe how big they are getting.

I wish I had pictures of the little guy eating his cake, but they wouldn't upload.  I will add them later if I can get it work.  Now Hope is a girly girl, and that has absolutely nothing to do with the way she is being raised.  She is all about skirts, dresses, princesses, and not getting sticky.  So one her first birthday, she was not into the whole cake in mouth thing.  It wasn't for her.  She didn't really even play with it.  Total bummer.  But my Aidan, he is a different story.  We gave him a whole eye of Elmo, so it was like his own individual cake.  He started out slow, but once he figured it it was a lot of yummy sugary stuff, he went crazy.  He had it all over his mouth, hands, it was . . . AWESOME!  I loved every minute of it.  I will never forget that moment. 

I then took the little guy into his 1 year appointment and he is weight is ok.  He is in the 7th percentile and still pretty picky about what he eats and how he eats it.  He only has 2 teeth still so I don't feel like I can give him much, but we are trying.  I am still nursing, but not as often and not in a rigid schedule like before.  He has had whole milk and had no problems with it.  I really struggle with what to give him.  He take organic whole milk with most meals and a little extra when I am not around, but he doesn't drink that much.  I nurse him anywhere between 2 and 4 times a day and then at night if he is waking up (he has been sick with an ear infection so I am currently nursing him when he wakes which is twice a night right now).  I am trying to be careful about soy with him because he is a boy, but the kid does like tofu. He hasn't had any meat, and doesn't like beans.  If there are any moms who have picky kids, tell me what you give them.  I refuse to have him eat chicken nuggets and mac and cheese every week.  We are doing what the ped recommends which is to just keep introducing the food over and over. 

Oh, and 4 days after the little guy's birthday, I celebrated my birthday.  The hubs did a great job for my birthday.  I felt very special.  And the cake I had was awesome!  It's a special place we get cakes for each other and they even come in vegan versions.

I survived Hopeapalooza

Last week was such a crazy week, I can't believe I survived.  My little girl is 3 years old.  I can't believe it.  I feel like she is a child now, not a baby or even a toddler (I know she is technically still a toddler, but it doesn't feel like it). 

Little Miss Hope Cecile has been giving us drama from the very beginning.  Not only was she conceived with love, but also modern science and medicine.  Then when I was 20 week pregnant, her growth dropped a little.  They told us not to worry but come back for another extensive ultrasound in 6 weeks.  We did and she had dropped even more, being diagnosed with borderline IUGR (intrauterine growth restriction).  I was put on modified bestrest and told to consume as many calories as possible (easy to say after they freak you out so bad that the thought of food makes you want to vomit).  I won't take you through all of the details, but the specialists wanted me induced after she stopped growing at 38+ weeks which was something I didn't want, but had been so upset for so long, I just wanted her out and healthy.  The induction went well and relatively fast for inductions and my "miracle" baby was born on Oct. 14, 2008 at 7:30am (yep I labored all night long).

3 years later, . . .

For her birthday, we took her out to dinner and to see Disney on Ice - Dare to Dream.  Dinner was nearby the arena at Johnny Rockets.  Little Hope wanted a "pink" shake and chicken fingers.  And they have a very good veggie burger, so I was happy. 

At first, she didn't like the show. 

We were very close, it got dark fast, and it was loud, so it was a good 20 minutes before she calmed down.  She survived and really enjoyed the second half.  The next day was her family birthday party, aka Christmas for Hope. 

For dinner, I did 2 veggies soups, vegetarian chili with butternut squash (pretty much used this exact recipe), and baked potato soup.  The chili is very good, btw.

For her cake, Hope wanted a pink cake with pink icing and pink ice cream. 

It was a whirlwind weekend, but we survived and lived to tell the story, including this guy . . .



Happy birthday to me

Well with Aidan just a few days old and us just out of the hospital, it was a pretty low key birthday, but it was a wonderful one all the same.  When Hope woke up, Adam took her and Aidan downstairs and told me to sleep in as long as I wanted.  I was able to actually fall back asleep, but just for an hour.  But man that hour felt soooo good.  I got up and fed Aidan and then had some coffee with Adam.  Then Adam took Hope and they ran errands to buy my presents.  Now, I know some of you ladies can't believe Adam wanted that long to get my birthday presents, but he had planned to go out last weekend, but we were in the hospital, so all was forgiven.  Actually the fact that Adam took Hope to run the errands was so nice.  The house was so quiet.  Aidan is still in the newborn phase, so he sleeps a lot.  I was able to relax a lot, take a shower, eat lunch quietly and not have to worry about anyone else other than Aidan.  It was a really nice day for me. 

We had planned to have family over for dinner, but since Aidan came early, we cancelled and just did dinner on our own.  Adam made me breakfast for dinner, homemade waffles with NY maple syrup and mini breakfast burritos.  I was actually feeling kind of sick from everything, but managed to eat every last bit because Adam went to such trouble to make me feel special, I wasn't going to have him think that I didn't appreciate it.  

Most of my family did stop by during the day to drop off gifts, so I was happy to get a couple of the accessories (car seat adaptor and console) for the Bob Duallie I got for Christmas.  Yeah!!!  And then Adam got me some new pans because I was wearing out my old ones.  We went with stainless steel to see how it compares to the nonstick we have been using.  And then he got me some fun shoes that I had been eyeing.

I am not a huge cake person (but don't mistake that for not a sweet person because I totally am), so when I went to get Adam's birthday cake last month at our favorite bakery, I saw the gentleman in front of me order a half chocolate pecan tart that looked amazing.  I told Adam about it and not only did he remember, but he got it for me.  It is so good.

Yum, people, yum!  If you are in Atlanta, or specifically Decatur, I highly recommend this place.

And of course little Aidan wished his mommy a happy birthday.  :)

Happy 32nd to me!