A Baby’s Eye View
By TheAngelForever | May 10, 2008
There are days that I wish I could read JSL’s mind. What does he think of the giant world around him? What exactly are those little blue eyes looking at?
In just a few short hours we will be having JSL’s 1st birthday party with our family. I can only imagine what he will be thinking with everyone at Nana and Papa’s house. Will be love or hate the attention? Is he going to enjoy frosting for the first time? So many firsts all in one day for a little guy who has not seen the world for an entire year.
As I sit here the day before Mother’s Day I have tears running down my cheek thinking about the year that has gone by.
A year ago I sat so horribly uncomfortable waiting for my little guy to arrive. He ignored all of the notices to vacate and came on his own schedule. JL and I tried to cherish the last moments with NHL before he became a big brother.
On Mother’s Day last year I had no idea what the following 24 hours would bring. I was exhausted that day and quite uncomfortable. My body must have known something was going on and made sure I took a long nap. JL brought NHL to the park and had an amazing time there while I caught up on sleep. It was a very lazy day, but a great one none the less.
The following morning I had the surprise of my life as my water broke standing up getting out of bed. The sound of the pop sent chills down my spine. I knew I was going to be a mommy again and was so thrilled to know I would soon meet my new little fellow.
Over the next few days I am going to try to gather things to showcase JSL’s 1st year before he officially turns one on Wednesday.
Happy Mother’s Day to everyone - have a wonderful special day!
Topics: birthday, jsl, looking back, milestone, photos | 1 Comment »
Baby sleep eating 101
By TheAngelForever | May 9, 2008
Just the other day I was looking at NHL’s baby photos. I mentioned to JL that I still recalled the day that he fell asleep mid-bite of baby food in his highchair. We both laughed and thought it was not likely to happen to JSL.
Monday early afternoon I was shocked with the following sequence of events.
At about 11:30 JSL and I sat down at the dining room table to have lunch. He had a cream cheese sandwich (his new favorite) and was quite content. As I was eating my lunch he was babbling away to me. Suddenly I looked a little closer because he was not talking as loudly. Sure enough his eyes were completely closed. He was still talking and shoving sandwich into his face.
I could not believe my eyes and continued to watch. I was afraid to walk by him to get my camera for fear of disturbing him. The poor little guy was obviously exhausted and needed rest before going to get big brother from school. I finally was able to retrieve my camera. This is a shot of his hand soon after he dropped a piece of his lunch onto the tray.
Not too long after this I watched as he was trying to get more comfortable. First he tried this:
Slowly his head moved down onto his shoulder as he was curling up into a good position. I know if I slept like this I would have a stiff neck for day. How about you?
This must not have been the most ideal spot because soon enough he shifted to this pose.
He stayed like this until I had to clean him off and pack him up to go and pick up NHL from school. Who knew that life as a baby could be such tough work. I guess growth spurts and teething take a LOT out of you.
Topics: interesting, jsl, looking back, nhl, photos, sleep | 1 Comment »
The Big Leagues - according to CityStreams
By TheAngelForever | May 8, 2008
CityStreams tagged me for a meme. The history of this meme, according to CS, means that I am in the big leagues of blogging. Thank you for the compliment CS - back at ya! So here is my take on this, followed by the people I will tag.
What were you doing ten years ago?
In the spring of 1998 I was attending a community college after leaving pharmacy school. I finally had the guts to say I hated it there and wanted to follow my dream of teaching. I took that semester to fix a class that I needed to help me switch career paths and schools for the fall of ‘98.
What are five things on your to-do list?
1. Get some sleep.
2. Finish shopping for items for JSL’s 1st birthday party on Sunday.
3. Purchase a gift for Mimi (my grandmother) to give to give to JSL.
4. Make Mother’s Day cards - the ones at the store were picked over weeks ago.
5. Find time to knit and read. . . and do the other 20 items on my to-do list!
What are five snacks you enjoy?
1. Graham crackers and low fat whipped cream 2. Cheese sticks 3. Trail mix 4. Yogurt 5. Granola bars (love the cherry and dark chocolate ones by Kashi).
Name some things you would do if you were a millionaire.
Pay off loans, buy a larger house in a better school district, help family fix up their house, get JL a new car, bring our entire family on a Disney World vacation (including a cruise) and invest for the future. The investing and saving for the boys for college is a must.
Name some places you have lived.
I have only lived in three places - 1. With my parents at their house. 2. Apartment that JL and I had when we were first married. 3. The small little house that we are currently living in.
Name some bad habits you have.
I am not good at making decisions. In addition to this I am able to live among the world of clutter that is my house. It is very organized clutter, but clutter. We are working on this because it is starting to become an issue when we want to have people over.
Name some jobs you have had.
I worked at my father’s baseball card store, pharmacy technician, cashier at a grocery store, test corrector for an educational company, assistant manager at a teacher store, and teacher.
Name those whom you are tagging.
Laura, Renee, and Elaine. I would list a bunch of others, but my brain is fried and I must go and attempt to cross #1 off my to-do list. Please know I have a ton of others that I would include - so if you want to consider yourself tagged. Please leave a comment here if you participate so I can be sure to read.
Topics: me moments, survey | 2 Comments »
Wordless Wednesday - The latest craze in napping
By TheAngelForever | May 7, 2008
For more WW fun head to the official home of Wordless Wednesday
Topics: Wordless Wednesday, jsl, sleep | 6 Comments »
Knitted cupcakes
By TheAngelForever | May 6, 2008
Oh wait, please pay no attention to the title of this blog post for today. My brain and life have just been inundated by all things cupcake! Thanks to so many test runs of giant cupcakes/birthday party preparations, reading (finally finished New Moon a while back), boys that will not nap/sleep, Twitter, and Mario Kart for the Wii - knitting had a back seat. I was still knitting a little here and there, but nothing like I had been doing.
JL asked me to make something for him. He wanted a back scrubber that he could really hold onto and use in the shower. He liked the DW cloth texture. I am quite addicted to making DW washcloths because it is mindless knitting (quite nice for late night Mommy brain drain sessions). It took me a little over a week to make with all of the other distractions going on. In the end this is what it looked like.
Yes, it looks like a giant scarf of a washcloth, but it should work perfectly. The cotton yarn does an amazing job holding onto water and soap and lathering up. Now for a close up
After finishing this I quickly whipped off a DW cloth for my little niece S who will be here this weekend to celebrate JSL’s first birthday. It has been so strange making cloths in girl colors. Yes, you read that right, I am now on the second one in yet another girl color scheme. I will post photos of them later after they have been given to S, I do not want to ruin the surprise for her Mommy and Daddy that read this (Hi I and M!).
Now I am off to check out where I have seen a pattern for a cupcake cloth. It is only fitting given my new role as cupcake queen.
Topics: knitting, me moments | 1 Comment »
Giant cupcake making - Take 2
By TheAngelForever | May 5, 2008
Saturday and Sunday it was time to bake and decorate the second test run of JSL’s first birthday cake. The first attempt can be seen here and viewed being eaten here. From the first baking we learned some valuable things. We knew that we had to put a lot less batter into the pan and bake it for less time.
Thanks to Google I was able to find a great hint. Someone mentioned baking it at 325 (not 350) for 65 minutes (we actually only kept it in 50 minutes). They also said to put 3 1/2 cups of batter into the bottom section and 3 cups into the top. Another pointer was to freeze the cake to make it easier to carve. While out and about we also decided to try something different for decorating. We found a new toy for me to use. Here it is:
Several of the photos of completed giant cupcakes had tops that had used a similar tool. We figured it was worth the small investment since it will be used again.
Given the resources I found we bought two marble cake mixes and whipped frosting and were ready to go. Things were a little more complicated with the marbling. We had to figure how much to leave out of each side to have the right amount left for the little cupcakes (we had a dozen of those this time). It took a bit more time, but we now believe it was worth it and will go quickly for JSL’s birthday. Here is the finished product after it was almost completely decorated Sunday night.
We ran out of frosting with a bit left to go. Ooops! Thank goodness JL’s co-workers did not seem to care as they devoured the cake rather quickly.
The deal was to send the giant cupcake into work and keep the little ones home. Here are half of the ones we had for all of us to enjoy. They have my favorite frosting from childhood on them that was discontinued for a while. Thank goodness it is back!
Hopefully the cake baking Saturday will go as smoothly. We just need to finalize the topper for the cake that will go along with the giant star sprinkles that I bought especially for JSL’s 1st birthday cake. We think we want something from Sesame Street and have to figure a way to write his name on it. Plus the #1 candle needs to be on top.
Enjoy the sugary goodness of the photos, more will be coming Sunday after the party!
Topics: birthday, food glorious food, fun, photos, yummy | 6 Comments »
CVS Deals- 4/30 & 5/1
By TheAngelForever | May 3, 2008
This month I had a really tough time finding most of the April deals at CVS. Pretty much every store I went to after April 2 was out of anything/everything really good. Do not get me wrong, I did really well with other items (especially the M&Ms), but it was frustrating at times. I can only imagine the poor people that work at CVS who had to listen to people all month long about things being out of stock.
Anyway Wednesday night we happened to be near a different CVS so I went in to see what they had. I have had luck at this one in the past. It was unreal - they had everything and tons of it (which when I went back today - was GONE). I was floored that they were overflowing with the 12 and 18 ounce Soft Soap Spa Radiant Body Wash. I quickly maxed out my limit on the 12 ounce and picked up two of the 18 ounce ones as well. They also had three of the rapid release pain relievers that fulfilled my limit. All of these items were FREE once I had my ECB print outs.
In addition to this, the CVS I was at had a great sale on Tide Free. All Tide was BOGO along with the All detergent that was in the ad this week. Although I did not get ECBs for these, I still did great with coupons and the BOGO. For all of the items below with a retail value of $64.89 I paid $2.78 out of pocket after coupons and ECBs. The best thing is I went in with $32 in ECBs and still have over $30!
The next day (5/1) I made a trip to a different CVS. When I went to check out I found out they were not having a sale on Tide. Strange how some do things so differently so close to each other. I was upset for my mother who was with me to see how the CVS thing is done. During that trip I also received the May montly flier and was able to get the Colgate 360 toothbrushes (free after ECBs) and one other item to try with NHL when brushing his teeth.
My mother had her own CVS card and I helped her with some coupons and was going to do her transaction. When her ECBs printed out I looked at it and saw MY NAME! Ugh, sure enough she had my small card. She has probably had it since I was in college. Problem was - we both were getting 2-3 of the Colgate 360 toothbrushes and could not do this on my one card. This threw me off my came and I had to think quickly. We filled out an application to get my mother her own CVS card and continued. I spent more out of pocket on my items because I was not able to use her ECBs that were mine . . . or maybe it was mine that were hers. You get the picture! My brain was mush at the end of that and I think the poor girl at the counter was too.
We shall see what next week brings.
Thanks to MoneySavingMom for her great scenarios and coupon alerts!
Topics: deals, photos, shopping | 4 Comments »
Giant cupcake eating
By TheAngelForever | May 2, 2008
As a follow up to Giant Cupcake Making - Take 1, I thought it would be fitting to share the photos from our taste testing Wednesday night.
Thanks to where I placed the cake to store it over night it was a pain in the rear to cut, especially the first slice. Check out the mess that resulted in my fun.
Thank goodness most people could care less what their slice looks like. Once they see the pretty cake, it is usually all about the tasting. Well, here is a slice for you. . .
What did you think? Hmmm . . . we need to work on the virtual giant cupcake eating thing I guess!
Here is NHL’s reaction to the cupcake.
Since everyone was having some of the giant cupcake we could not leave JSL out of it. He had some cake without frosting. He will get ALL of the sugary goodness for the first time at his party on Mother’s Day. Here was his reaction to the cake. . .
Of course this giant cupcake eating event was done pretty late and both boys were over tired, acting silly, and eventually on sugar highs.
Just a little slap happy if you ask me!
Thank goodness both of the boys settled soon after for nice sugar filled.
Giant Cupcake Take 2 is scheduled for Sunday so JL can take it to work with him.
Topics: birthday, food glorious food, jsl, nhl, photos, yummy | 4 Comments »
Giant cupcake making - Take 1
By TheAngelForever | April 30, 2008
As hard as it is for me to believe, my baby is going to be one two weeks from today. His family party will actually be on Mother’s day before his actual birthday. Since the little guy is in love with my cupcake pillow we thought it would be fitting to make a giant cupcake for his big day. I had read about them online many times and finally found one in a local store. With a 50% off coupon for the store I got my cake pan for a great price and decided to test out the pan. All of the reviews said that the pan took some getting used to.
Last night I had everything ready and made the cake for a test run. We decided not to bother baking it since it looked so good like this:
Some of it was eaten in this state, but most was baked into a giant cupcake and 8 extra little cupcakes. Since I used pasteurized egg whites I allowed NHL to have his first cake batter EVER. Yes, you read that right my poor almost five year old son has never had cake batter before. Sad no? Check out his reaction to this big event. Please note where JSL is during this time. He was really trying to get NHL to give him a taste.
JSL was not interested in giving up. Watch his progressive movement as NHL moved sides while dodging little hands. Please note the sad little puppy eyes from the little guy. Too bad those do not work on his big brother.
NHL had a blast and loved smiling with lots of cake batter on his face (other photos seen on Wordless Wednesday).
All of the boys were enjoying the time playing before bed while Mommy baked.
Now for the birth of a GIANT cupcake:
Overall the test bake did not go too horribly. It was a very good thing that we did the run through since we learned several things that we will do differently next time that should make it even more successful.
This morning when NHL woke up we showed him the finished cupcake. I do not think he realized how large it was going to be after putting it together. He refused to let me give it away and insisted that we taste test it this evening.
More on the taste testing later!
Topics: birthday, food glorious food, jl, jsl, nhl, photos, yummy | 4 Comments »
Wordless Wednesday - The joys of baking GIANT cupcakes
By TheAngelForever | April 30, 2008
Topics: Wordless Wednesday, nhl, yummy | 6 Comments »
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