Surprises

Life is full of surprises. What else can I say...

October 12th to October 18th

BEST

I have the feeling that I will call Tavian "Babyhead" long after he stops being a baby and is growing into a little boy, an awkward teenager, a young man, an actual adult, etc. There are some days when I have to consionusly tell myslef to say Tavian instead of Babyhead because he will start to think that my favorite nickname for him is his actual name. But once you start saying it you can't stop, it just makes me smile...Babyhead, Babyhead, Babyhead!

This week, however, I witnessed an event that slapped me in the face with a cold hand of reality that babies grow up and grow up fast. No matter what you call them.  This event was a little thing called crawling. Yes, a human's first attempt at becoming independently mobile.  Tay has been up on his hands and knees rocking back and forth for several weeks. Then he graduated to a flopping type motion which actual gave him the ability to move form point A to point B. But this week he actually put one hand out, one knee up, the other hand out, the other knee up.  Then he got distracted by Mom's gasping, squealing, and clapping so he stopped.

Another grown up moment for Babyhea-oh I mean Tavian was actually something we have been working on for awhile. Holding his own bottle. I have not been shy about the fact that I am jealous of our friend's Natalia and Wyatt. When it is Wyatt's meal time Natalia simply hands over the bottle and you couldn't pry it out of his hands if you tried. Since Wyatt is only 5 weeks older than Tavian I figured we were on our way to bring good little bottle holding eaters. After a few days of holding his hands to the bottle with my hands as he eats...I finally took a deep breath and let go of the bottle. And he did it! For about 2 minutes Tavian held his own bottle.  Good job Babyhead...I love you soooo much!

WORST

"I really miss baking." I said this to Rachelle the other day during a conversation about nutritionists, dieting, working out, and trying to get back to my pre-baby weight.  I love to bake. Mix up all the ingredients, add in some TLC, fill the house with yummy smells, and then soothe your soul with something warm, soft, gooey,moist,sweet, and delicious.  However, having a whole batch of baked goods for only you and your loved one to eat does not help with the waistline issues. And even worse is how tired and soar I am from working out gets totally trumped.

Later I was on the Obama website looking for local events to volunteer for...and came across the posting "Need donations for Obama Bake Sale fundraiser."  I didn't even think twice before I strapped Tavian in the stroller and trotted out the door to the local market to get my ingredients for the best cupcakes that fundraiser will ever see (or taste!)  Then I came up with a great idea...red velvet cupcakes, but make them "blue velvet" in honor of our democratic color.  I pictured biting in to the delicious little cake revealing a deep blue color topped with classic white cream cheese frosting.  At the store I had trouble finding individual blue food coloring...they only had packs of four primary colors. So I figured I would use the blue one and then if I needed to I can mix red and green for blue...or is it mix green an

d yellow? Shoot I should have paid more attention in 2nd grade art class...oh well I'll figure it out.

So here is a little lesson for the rest of you bakers out there...adding blue to chocolate cake batter does not make blue batter. And then mixing red and green food coloring and then adding it to the batter, does not make blue batter either. And to this day I still do not know how to make blue cake batter. I DO however know how to make "poo green" cake batter. And when I say "poo green" I mean the exact same shade that I see (and smell) everyday in Mr. Babyhead's diapers. I also now know how to turn tasty cupcakes into something completely unappetizing purely because of the unsightly color. I am so sorry Obama...your fundraising cupcakes went right into the garbage