The Cake

Ok, I know I have shocked you. 2 posts in one day blows way past expectations for this blog. But this has been a big week, and I have LOTS to share!

So, as mentioned in the previous post, Will's birthday was Sunday. We decided to have a party for him on Saturday the 24th. We went with a Thomas the Tank Engine theme,(one of Will's favorites) and I decided we would make individual homemade pizzas for dinner. We invited all our friends from Eli's lab, and our friends here in Festus who have a son 6 months older than Will. All-in-all I think we had a good plan. I decided we needed a festive cake to go along with the party's theme; a cake that would really make Will excited. I can tell you I succeeded in giving Will that surprise. I can also tell you I almost killed myself getting it done.

The Friday before the party, Will and I went to the St. Louis Zoo with our friend Julie and her son Jake, our frequent play date partners and good friends. Julie's father joined us and Eli even came from the office to walk around with us for a while. A good time was had by all. Julie, being the saint that she often is, offered to keep Will for me the rest of the afternoon so that I could get busy baking the cakes. I took her up on the offer and went directly home.

The cake I chose to make is from an idea on sproutonline.com. Sprout is a cable channel composed entirely of PBS shows for preschoolers. It is currently Will's only source of television, and regularly shows party and craft ideas. The cake is actually relatively simple- instead of using traditional cake pans, bake two standard size cake recipes in 12 mini loaf pans. Once baked, use 2 of the mini cakes to form Thomas (I cheated and used unrolled and stacked swiss cake rolls for the barrel of the engine), and decorate the others as train cars. Create a track out of sugar wafer cookies and crushed chocolate cookies, and top frosted train cars with candy freight. Not too bad, right?

Well I never accurately account for the time needed to put big baking projects together. I did get all the baking done on Friday afternoon with no trouble at all. I made half of the cars from a banana cake recipe that I knew Will loved. I made the other half with a great moist chocolate cake recipe- both can be found in the Better Homes and Gardens Cook Book. The banana cake got cream cheese frosting and the chocolate cake got a fluffy white frosting with a touch of orange extract. Saturday I spent the first hour I was awake doing little chores and ushering Eli and Will out of the house (Eli took Will to the Transportation Museum so I could work on the cake without interruption or chance of Will seeing it too soon). I began putting the cake together at about 9:15am. I didn't finish until almost 2:00pm. This was for a simple cake!!!

Needless to say, the party went very well. Will was so excited about everything- and didn't immediately realize he got to eat the cake. Below are some pictures of the work-in-progress and the final product.

Birthday Boy!

If you would be so kind, we will all just overlook the fact that it has been seven months since my last blog post and move on. Thank you so very much.

We celebrated my son's 2nd birthday this past weekend. It is impossible to fathom how much my life has changed in those 2 years, or how quickly that time has passed. I am so thankful that I get to be with him throughout the day; perhaps more thankful that I AM thankful at this point, because I remember all too clearly that it was not all sunshine and daisies in the beginning.

Will is, I think, a very normal 2-year-old little boy. Just like all kids his age he is ahead of the curve in some areas, and still catching up in others. We had his check-up on Monday, and he is 38" tall and weighs 31lb, 6oz. He is so far off the height chart at this point that they show us the chart, and then point to his dot way above the top percentiles. No need to say anything else. His weight is average, as is his head circumference (things you don't realize you will keep track of before becoming a parent). We assume that all this height at his age attributes to his, well, clumsiness. Of course, the Davis klutz gene can't be ignored either. He can't quite get both feet off the floor yet when trying to jump, and while his climbing has improved at a scary rate, he can still fall down in the middle of an empty room for absolutely no reason at all. His fine motor skills are improving too, but we aren't jumping ahead developmentally there either.

Where my son really shines though is in language skills. Imagine, a son of mine being a talker!! At 24 months they want to see him putting at least 2 words together. Will has been putting 3 and 4 words together for several months now, and even goes for a 5 word phrase once in a great while. The funny thing about this though is that unless you are around him all the time you would never know how much he talks. In public my son turns into his father- quiet and observant until he feels comfortable, which can take a while. Once he finally lets loose, he usually surprises the people around him.

We have had so much fun with Will, and it just keeps getting better. He waits for his Daddy to come home so they can go play in the backyard or the car. He loves playing with his fire truck or school bus, but also loves to cuddle his puppy or teddy bear. He is experiencing those wild swings in mood and emotion that often result in the dreaded tantrum, but thankfully they are usually brief and handled without too much trouble. On the rare occasion when he truly loses control of his emotions he seems as much confused as to why he can't calm down as anything else.

We have also entered the phase where he wants to make all his own decisions. This one is hard for me, mostly because I have been so accustom to his laid back personality. Now I have to remember to present things to him in such a way that he feels he gets a choice, which when you are in a hurry isn't always easy. He wants to be independent so badly, and boy what a tug-o-war that can be for a Momma. We are working through it just like everything else.

I am so looking forward to what this next year brings. Of course, I am also worried too. We have some big milestones to get through in the not too distant future, including potty training and a big boy bed. I get the worry lines on my forehead just thinking about that. But it seems like every big worry looks so silly in retrospect, so I know we will get through it all with a happy little guy.