One More

Here is one more picture of my sweet boy.

It's him on the airplane a week ago.

Asleep with his arms behind his head.

Again.



Gotta love him.

Deja Vu

Now that we're back in the sandbox where we were when H was a wee little babe... I keep getting deja vu! Our sweet girlie looks SO much like her big brother did and now she's in the bed that was his and some of his clothes. It's like a flashback!!

And she also likes to be swaddled to sleep. It's her drug!

But, we are in a HOT place, so the swaddle looks something like this...



I mean, who said that the legs had to be included anyway?

You can see H in his swaddle here, when it was his drug a couple of years ago. Like they always say... "Like big brother, like little sister."

Okay. So nobody says that. But they should. Cause it's probably true a lot of the time...

A First Time for Everything

I think a lot of parents do the whole lay-down-with-my-kid-till-they-fall-asleep thing. Not me. Not us. Not EVER. Until now. Tonight I broke down and did it!

It's jetlag you see. Apparently small two-and-a-half-year old boys don't deal with having their body clock immediately moved by 8 hours. (Neither do older adult types, either!). Last night it's was Mike's duty. His strategy was to get said small boy up at 1am, turn on all the lights, give him snacks and movies and let him play. Interesting strategy if you ask me (sorry honey). But it was fine cause it meant Mike could watch the Buckeyes play on streaming video at 2am. He was happy for an excuse to be up at that ridiculous hour for a sporting event. And eventually he slept.

Tonight when the midnight cries of "I wanna get down" began, I stepped up. My strategy? Lay in bed with him and don't move. I didn't know what to expect in response. I was pleasantly surprised!

There was a little crying and complaining. But mostly my nose was being pinched, legs being thrown over my waist, knees in my back, little hands on my face, and nice gentle kicking on my lower back... which felt nice, actually.

I think I laid there for two hours. I snoozed off and on, and my boy... well... he rolled and pinched and kicked and poked. UNTIL... he fell asleep!!

But then, as I was doing the classic contortionist move trying to get out of bed without stirring him... his eyes popped open! What to do?? I lowered myself back down on the pillow and pretended that me climbing out had been a mistake. Eyes closed. Few more minutes pass. Raise up again. Eyes open!! Oh no!! This time I said "I'm gonna get you some more water, okay Sonny?" "Okay Mommy." And when I brought that water back he told me "Get out." Okay then.

And now it's 3am and he's snoozing contentedly and I'm still wide awake. Could someone come lay with me in bed? Oh wait, someone is. That big someone is also snoozing contentedly. :)

Anyway, it's hard to believe some parents play that game every night trying to get their kids to sleep.

Wanna know something else? My son LOVES to sleep with his arms behind his head. Here's a picture of him back in August when we drove across the country to get to Colorado.



This is a few months later sleeping in his big-boy bed.



And if I wanted to I could now provide you with a photo of him sleeping in that very position this very minute, but if you think I'm gonna risk his sleep with a flash you have GOT to be kidding me...

Schneider's

Happy face cookies. Happy face cookies from Schneider's bakery have a place in my childhood memory forever. There is nothing like Schneider's cookies. And never will be!

And this week my eyes beheld Schneider's cookies. And then my fingers touched them. And then, hallelujah, my mouth tasted them!!

This box came in the mail. Excitement flooded my soul...



Could it be? Yes, yes! It's got a Schneider's stamp!!



No smilies... it's Valentines Day! Yay for Schneider's hearts!



Yes. I admit it. This is all that 's left. This is all that is left and they only arrived yesterday...



Mmmmmnnnnn....

Flashback

Please rewind with me to Christmas Eve. My parents were here waiting for little girl's arrival and we invited some dear friends over for Christmas Eve Brunch (which I think should be an annual happening... it was so special and so fun).

I wanna show you the table I set for my guests. I LOVE setting beautiful tables as you can see here and here.

Wanna join us next year? Might not look quite the same on the other side of the globe however...

What We've Been Waiting For...

What to do when you have a crying baby upstairs and piles of laundry downstairs?

No brainer.

You carry baby downstairs, let her relax in a basket of clean clothes while you do your thing, then you carry baby and clothes all upstairs at once in the basket! I've done this multiple times! I mean it sure beats trying to balance baby in one arm and heavy basket in another!

And apparently, baby likes it. Cause she stopped crying. See?



She was looking quite pleasant actually.



Maybe even HAPPY!



So happy that she cracked a little smirk...



That turned into a full fledged grin!!



And then my heart melted forever and ever.

Cake Catch-up

You should be glad I didn't type Cake Ketchup. Gross.

Here are a few more cakes I have made in the last year or so.

This first one is a faux wedding cake I did. It is faux not because it wasn't made of real cake and icing (cause it was!). It was faux because it wasn't for a wedding. I was asked to do a wedding cake replica. I was fairly pleased!




















And this is a simple, (yet charming I say) cake I made for my sweet nephew Davis's baptism in June.















The last one was for a friend's birthday in the fall. I don't often draw 'characters' on cakes... but this one turned out well. Although it wasn't done freehand! Us decorators have our secrets...