Grand Finale!

Tonight was my last class in the Wilton Course One. I must say, I have absolutely ADORED taking the class and I am sad it's over. However, I AM taking Course Two next month so there will be more cakes to come!

Here are some pictures of my grand finale cake. This one is my best, if I say so myself. Of course, compared to rainbows and clowns, the bar wasn't too high to begin with...



This is a close up of my flowers. I thought I would never get it, but Sunday, while I was working on them, something in my head just clicked and I was able to do it. I was beyond excited:



And here is an updated picture of Bryan and me. I am post long work day and cake class and Bryan had his evening of daddy duty:



Unrelated, I am in the VERY EARLY stages of a new job prospect. I don't want to say too much because I don't want to jinx it, but if it works out, our financial situation will improve dramatically. If all of you could keep your fingers crossed, I would appreciate it. Once things progress (and I hope they do!!), I will post some details!

The Worst Day Ever...and a New Cake!

This blog should be two separate ones, but yesterday was so awful that I didn't have the energy to blog about it, so I am combining everything into this one blog. Be warned--long post ahead!!

First, the worst day ever. That day, at least for our household, was June 20, 2007. The day started off like normal. The first indicator of things going wrong occurred around 1:30 p.m. when our phones and computers went down at work. One minute they worked, the next, nothing. Despite my boss's phone calls to our phone and T1 providers, the problem remained unresolved for the remainder of the day. Unfortunately, my boss would not let anyone leave until 4:45, despite the fact that none of us could do any work. So I developed a pounding headache and a ravenous hunger that I suspect was fueled not so much by actual hunger but more by boredom.

I finally got out of that horrendous situation and headed to my car. I called Bryan, like usual, to let him know I was on my way to pick up the kiddo. Bryan said that he was going to be a bit late as he had a flat tire when he came out of work. Not a problem, I thought, so I drove to Jonathan's school to pick him up. There I am met by his teacher, Christina, who tells me that there was a problem. I will spare everyone the gory details, but suffice it to say that during the day, Jonathan had developed swelling, bleeding and an overall wholly unpleasant situation "down there." Apparently, the assistant director of the school was notified of the situation and tried to call me at work where she, like everyone else, was met by a busy signal. Unfortunately, she did not call any of the approximately 20 other contact numbers listed on our contact information. She told me that she figured it wasn't an emergency so she would just tell me when I got there to pick him up. I was infuriated because, if you thought it necessitated her calling me, it certainly necessitated her trying more than one number.

I was not happy, to say the least, but saved that argument for another day in order to focus on Jonathan. I called the pediatrician's office, who contracts out their after hours service to the most inept individuals I have spoken to in some time. After one of their nurses told me just to let Jonathan sleep on a towel overnight with no diaper and call our regular doctor in the morning (NOT a satisfactory answer, in case there was any doubt), Bryan and I took Jonathan to a local hospital that has what's called a "Kids Express" associated with their ER, where a pediatrician is on staff for situations such as these. We ended up spending two and a half hours there, but were fortunate to see a really great pediatrician who diagnosed the problem as an infection and switched Jonathan from the "pink stuff" to some mack-daddy antibiotic and also gave us a salve. We finally left with a cranky and hungry 23 month old around 8:00 p.m.

I headed home to feed Jonathan dinner while Bryan went to get the new meds. After he got home, we decided he would put Jonathan to bed and I would run out to McDonalds to get dinner. I went to the car and tried to start it up. I was met by an odd clicking sound and flashing dash lights. No engine starting and no radio playing. I almost cried but instead tried to keep it together. Our neighbor works on her car, so I had her take a look at it since Bryan was otherwise occupied. We end up jumping it and it started but while we were letting it idle so the battery could recharge, it died. A second attempt yielded the same results. So, we decided it must be something worse than just needing a new battery, so Bryan and I made a plan to have it towed to the dealership this morning.

After all this, Bryan and I ended up having a couple of cocktails and retreating, somewhat dejectedly, to bed. We got up this morning, had the car towed and everyone ended up arriving where they were supposed to be in a relatively timely fashion. Today was MUCH better--Jonathan is definitely on the mend and it turned out my car only needed a new battery after all. Bryan is still driving around on a donut, but he will get his tire plugged tomorrow (turns out it was just a nail). We are definitely thinking one or both of us committed a severe karma breach somewhere, though, because, seriously, what are the chances that all of these things would happen in the same day??

I was supposed to decorate my second cake last night and take it to a pot luck at work today but that, obviously, did not happen. However, I did complete it this evening and decided I would take it to school for Jonathan's teachers, thus the "thank you" message on the cake. I am not crazy about the clowns, but since we all have to do the same cake, I had absolutely zero discretion:



We are both completely exhausted after yesterday, but luckily tomorrow is Friday and the weekend looks like it's going to be perfect! I am going to try to enjoy it before I switch into full-blown second-birthday party mode!

I Am an Idiot

I seriously did one of the absolute dumbest things ever this weekend. I will preface this story with everything turned out fine, but I am still pretty shaken up over it.

Around the middle of last week, Jonathan developed a cough. Not a particularly bad cough, but bothersome in that it interrupted his naps and woke him up at night. As the cough was his only symptom, I did not see any reason to take him to the doctor unless it progressed. We tried elevating the end of his crib and also some of those plug in menthol things. Neither really worked so on Friday, I rummaged through the area where I keep his medicines and came across a prescription cough medicine from December. I thought "perfect" and Bryan and I gave it to him a few times this weekend. It seemed to help a lot.

So on Monday, I took the medicine and a doser with me to Jonathan's school. You have to fill out and sign some paperwork that basically says it's OK to give your kid whatever kind of medicine it is. As I was filling out the paperwork, I had to refer to the bottle to see the name of the medicine. That is when I noticed my error.

The prescription was in my name and not Jonathan's. And it was the prescription cough medicine that I was given when I had pneumonia in December. And it has codeine in it.

Immediately panicked, I tried to remain calm. Jonathan was obviously OK, so I told him goodbye, took the medicine with me and walked out to the car as quickly as possible. I called Bryan and he, sounding calmer than I felt, told me to call the pediatrician. I did so immediately. They directed me to call the pharmacy where I'd gotten the medicine. I did and the very nice pharmacist was able to look up the prescription. He asked me Jonathan's age and weight and put me on hold while he calculated the dosage. After what felt like ten minutes (although it was probably more like thirty seconds), he got back on the phone and told me everything was OK, that, actually, Jonathan could have had twice the amount we were giving him per dosage (Note: for some bizarro reason, I only gave Jonathan 1/2 teaspoon at a time rather than the 2 teaspoons indicated on the label. A good thing, but where was my reasoning?). I thanked him profusely and got off the phone.

Then I immediately burst into tears. How had I made such a stupid mistake? Given, Jennifer and Jonathan have the same number of letters, but are not otherwise similar, so how did I let this happen? I am honestly not sure how this medicine got with Jonathan's medicines to begin with as I keep the two in completely separate places. I just cannot believe that I did not check the name on the label before I gave it to Jonathan. Also, I just can not get past the "what if" feeling, as in what if it had been worse and Jonathan now needed a kidney transplant or something?

I am happy to report that even with all this, Jonathan is fine. I ended up taking him to the doctor yesterday afternoon, a little bit because of my snafu, but also because the cough had not gotten any better over five or six days. Turns out he was just coming out of a sinus infection and going into a double ear infection, so we are now on the "pink stuff" for the next ten days. When I told the doctor about what I'd done, he assured me that Jonathan was not harmed in the least, which made me feel a teensy bit better, but overall I still feel like a boob.

So from now on, I am taking all of Jonathan's prescriptions to Target since they will color-code them for me in case I forget to check the label again. Not that I foresee that happening again in the next million years, but you can never be too safe. One of the other attorneys in my office tells me that I will find this funny at some point (her children are 18 and 21), but I suspect that is going to be a really long time from now...

Happy Father's Day!

I grew up with a wonderful father and feel very fortunate in that regard. His one shortcoming, however, was that he worked entirely too much to support us (there were three children and my mother, who stayed at home to take care of us until I was in high school), making him somewhat emotionally distant. He is now a lot better in that area, but I always hoped that one day when I had children, my husband would not have that same attribute.

I am more than happy to say that Bryan is most definitely NOT like my father in that respect. He and Jonathan share an incredible relationship that seems to deepen more and more as Jonathan gets older. From the moment Jonathan was born, Bryan was a "hands on" Dad--getting up in the middle of the night for feedings, sleeping on the couch while Jonathan slept in his swing and receiving his fair share of spit-up coatings from our little reflux baby. Barring changing Number Two diapers (which Bryan will do, but he REALLY has a strong gag reflex and I honestly don't really mind), Bryan has been a 100% equal parent. Even though I sometimes feel like I am doing the majority of the work, it's really more that it's just in my nature to do things rather than something that is Bryan's fault.

So, in honor of my wonderful hubby, here are ten reasons why Bryan is a wonderful father. These are not in any particular order and are just a few of many, many reasons from which I have to chose:

1. He knows just how to tickle Jonathan with his goatee, such that Jonathan squeals like a girl.
2. He reads Jonathan Dr. Seuss books in funny voices.
3. He worries about Jonathan getting hurt more than I do.
4. He makes Jonathan the best peanut butter and jelly sandwiches a 23 month old has ever seen.
5. He snuggles Jonathan in the morning while Jonathan eats a snack and watches Thomas.
6. He tries to be patient, even though Jonathan is whiny sometimes and even though I know it gets on Bryan's nerves like nothing else.
7. He is always willing to take Jonathan and give Mommy a little alone time, knowing that makes for a happy family overall.
8. He and Jonathan wore matching shirts to the Father's Day breakfast at church today and he actually seemed pleased about it (although I suspect he thought it was a little corny).
9. He sings songs to comfort Jonathan when he is grouchy or not feeling well.
10. He is openly affectionate with Jonathan, encouraging Jonathan to give hugs and say "I love you."

The fact that I picked the perfect person to be my husband is confirmed every day in little interactions between Bryan and Jonathan. I am so thankful to have these two wonderful guys in my life. Happy Father's Day honey and to my Dad and to all the other great fathers out there!

My First "Professional" Cake!

For those of you who know me in real life, I am a complete dork in that I am easily excited by things that other people would not be. Right now, that's cake. I started a Wilton's cake decorating class at Michael's last week. It's the beginner class and I absolutely love it! I've wanted to do it for some time, but one thing or another kept getting in the way. Now that I'm finally doing it, I am totally kicking myself in the butt for not doing it sooner. But, happily, it is over the last Tuesday in June which means I will be able to do Jonathan's second birthday cake myself. I am honestly beyond elated just at the thought!

Every student in the class has to do the same cake each class. We had so much instruction time in class last night that we had to decorate the cake at home. You can believe that I started on mine as soon as we got Jonathan to bed tonight! It took me around an hour and my hands are crazy sore right now, but it's done and I'm proud of it. It is definitely not the best cake ever decorated, but it is for sure the best one I have ever done and that is good enough for me. BTW, Marvin is my boss and his birthday is this Friday, so I've "dedicated" it to him:



This second one is because my hubby is insistent that I must take other pictures of the cake than just standing over it, so here's another one for those of you who share his desire for a different perspective:



Maybe I should have considered culinary school over law school because this was a heck of a lot more fun than dealing with my needy clients...

A Great Reason Not To Work!!

Thanks to Janice and her super-nice comment about my kiddo on her blog, I have been tagged to do a "Two by Two" post. The rules are simple, just supply the answers in the appointed categories. Here goes:

Two Names You Go By:
1. Jennifer--I was born in 1978. My parents were not creative in the least as I had at least two other Jennifers in every class I was in all the way through school.
2. Mommy--My favorite! Even when I've heard it 2,406 times in a half hour time period, I still love that I have this title!

Two Things You Are Wearing Right Now
1. Black Striped Knit J.Crew Dress. It's been in my wardrobe for an embarrassingly long time, but it is honestly the most comfortable thing I can acceptably wear to work.
2. Black Cardigan. It may be 90 outside, but my office is the Arctic.

Two Things You Want in a Relationship
1. Equality. I do not mind to do my part, but I want my partner to share equally in the workload.
2. Contentment. Bryan and I have been together for seven years and I still look forward to seeing him every day and spending time with him. There is nothing that makes me happier than to sit outside on nice summer nights, have a glass of wine and discuss what's in my head with him.

Two of Your Favorite Things to Do
1. Watch Jonathan experience new things.
2. Go on vacation, especially somewhere tropical!

Two Things You Want Very Badly at This Moment
1. Honda CR-V. I just need to keep reminding myself that I only have 10 payments left on my Civic...
2. A remodeled kitchen. This is actually inching towards becoming a reality, but I would KILL for a dishwasher.

Two Pets You Have or Had
1. Arthur, the neurotic chihuahua. Very stubborn and likes to pee on things, particularly Jonathan's things. He is the best snuggler, but only if it's his idea.
2. Alice, the sweet scaredy-cat chihuahua. She is a rescue from Chihuahua Rescue and Transport. She is pretty deaf and very skinny, despite our attempts to plump her up. She hides upstairs under our bed a lot, but she is a sweet girl and I am happy we are able to provide her with an abuse-free home.

Two People Who Will Fill This Out First
1. Heather. Probably not really, but I wish she would blog more because I miss her! Maybe this will inspire a new post!
2. Kara. She has been doing a really good job blogging on a regular basis and her posts crack me up, so I hope she will post her own "Two by Two."

Two Things You Did Last Night
1. Iced my cake for my second class. I'm taking the beginner's Wilton's course at Michaels.
2. Ate Taco Bell for dinner. After I finished doing all my "homework" for said Wilton's course, it was late and we were hungry. It was delicious!

Name Two Chores That You Do Not Like Doing
1. Dusting.
2. Dishes. Which is why it is particularly unfortunate that I do not have a dishwasher!

Two Things You Ate Today
1. Gorgonzola penne with chicken, mushrooms and green peppers.
2. Hershey's 100 calorie pack.

Two People You Talked to Last
1. One of my traffic clients
2. My assistant, Natalie

Two Things You are Doing Tomorrow
1. Going to Traffic Court
2. Calling my sister to wish her Happy Birthday

Two Favorite Holidays
1. July Fourth--I love fireworks and grilling out. Also, it's nice when it falls in the middle of the week, like this year. Nothing better than a mid-week day off work!
2. Thanksgiving--I love going to WV and visiting my family. The food is incredible and the day after shopping is great, too.

Two Favorite Beverages
1. Margaritas. Preferably while listening to Jimmy Buffett. It's cliche, but makes me happy regardless.
2. A nice bottle of red wine, such as a pinot noir.

Wow, that was really fun! And it took awhile, so just a smidgen of work left to do and I can go pick up Jonathan. Hope everyone is having a great day!!

Down on the Farm

Since my mother was here on Saturday, we decided to go over to Indiana and visit Huber's Orchard and Winery. It's a really neat place with a kid's area (petting zoo, mountain slides, playground, etc.), farmer's market, restaurant and homemade ice cream. We started our visit by riding out on the tractor to the "U-Pick" area. My mom, Jonathan and I picked strawberries while hubby voyaged on a little further to enjoy the first picking of black raspberries. Jonathan didn't really get the concept of picking only ripe berries, but that was OK since he picked a total of 10 of the seven or so pounds of strawberries Mom and I picked. He at least started to get the concept after he heard another mother tell her child "just pick the red ones, no green." I realized this as Jonathan approached other children in the strawberry patch and advised them "no geen, no geen." Hysterical.

After our berry picking extravaganza, we enjoyed some ice cream and then Mom and I took Jonathan to the kid's area. Jonathan pretty immediately decided his "ips" were chapped and wanted my chap stick. Apparently, the stone pig also had the same problem:



Needless to say, my Burt's Bees has been replaced. Jonathan had his first go at feeding dried corn to animals. He was OK with goats, but was understandably put off by the alpaca:



Not only did I lose my lip balm, but I also lost my bottled water after Jonathan felt the need to share it with all of the stone animals, but particularly this stone dinosaur. He really could not understand why it wouldn't drink as he was certain it was thirsty:



All in all, it was a wonderful weekend. Unfortunately, however, I was reminded of how completely out of shape I am when I woke up this morning. Two days of farm/zoo left my legs completely sore! I enjoyed every minute of it, however. It also reminded me yet again how much I wish that my mother lived closer!! Thanks for a wonderful weekend, Mom!!

Jonathan and the Choking Hazard

As I posted previously, Jonathan got a haircut at Cookie Cutters last week. Besides the obligatory shorter hair, he also received a green balloon and a safety lollipop. The lollipop lasted about ten minutes and I thought the balloon expired by the end of the day. Surprisingly, though, Jonathan had squirreled it away, such that today he pulled out a very deflated balloon still attached to the ribbon and the weight. He played with it for some time this morning, which was particularly funny as he was simultaneously wearing one shoe and a pair of pretty grungy (by that point in the morning) PJs. We couldn't help but laugh at how ridiculous he looked:



Obviously, I am well aware of the choking hazard this green piece of latex posed, but, in spite of that, hubby, my mother and I were in stitches as Jonathan ran around the room with his "toy." Could someone explain to me why I even bother to purchase toys for this child?





We had a really awesome visit with my mother this weekend. She is here through tomorrow, so I only had time for a quick blog, but I have some great pics from our visit to Huber's Orchard and Winery and Petting Zoo yesterday, so stay tuned!

Auntie Rocks!

My sister, Laura, deemed herself Auntie from pretty much the second I told her I was pregnant with Jonathan (which was really early on since I found out I was pregnant two weeks in!). For some people, the title wouldn't work, but it definitely suits her.

Auntie is married and she has two wonderful stepdaughters, but no children of her own just yet (although I am keeping my fingers crossed). Auntie loves Jonathan and Auntie loves to shop, in that order. Occasionally, she sends us a random package of things for Jonathan. It's always great fun to see what's inside.

It's been a while since we received a package, so I wasn't too surprised when one came today. Perfect timing, as it was a crazy day at work and Jonathan is always a little off on Mondays, having to get back into the day care routine and all. This particular package included a couple of cute t-shirts, a new pair of shorts, a book with fuzzy farm animals and, most importantly, a remote control truck. It's a yellow dump truck with a boulder in the back. Unfortunately, it takes 6 (!) AAA batteries, which left us scouring every electronic apparatus in our house, but we finally got it working. Bryan and I thought initially that Jonathan didn't "get" the control, but he caught on fairly quickly...



Now for the running commentary of the thoughts in Jonathan's head:

Oh, dear "tuck", you need a rest. Rest your wheels in my Anywhere Chair...



How does this thing work? It must be magic!



You don't seriously expect me to go to bed when there is a new "tuck" in the house, do you??



Thanks Auntie for making our Monday so much fun!!!

Lovin' The Anywhere Chair

As a shower gift, a few of my girlfriends went together and got Jonathan an Anywhere Chair from Pottery Barn Kids. As some of you already know, it's an awesome chair! My only complaint is it's a little bottom heavy, so it's fairly easy for an active toddler to tip over.

Jonathan's interest in the chair has varied over time with the current status being fascination. This evening, I pointed out to Jonathan that the chair has a pocket on the back. I think it is supposed to be for books, but ours currently has some plastic food, Fisher Price Roll-A-Round balls, an egg beater and the "wood" cutting board from his play kitchen. I wish I would have showed him this previously as we are now going on thirty minutes of amusement which is a HUGE deal in our house. This is Jonathan happily stuffing his pocket with treasures:



And this next one is him cheesing in the chair, where he actually sat still for 1.5 seconds, a new record:



As it's been a wonderful but tiring weekend, I'm off to have some strawberry daiquiris with the hubby. It's just going to be on our front porch, but they are much-deserved and I am looking forward to it!!

Pyjama Progress

Since my last post about making pyjamas, I have not actually worked on them at all which, amazingly, makes it really hard for them to actually get completed! So, while Jonathan took a nap today, I decided to put my Mother's Day gift to use and try to make some headway.

I am currently in the stage where you pin the pattern pieces to the fabric and cut it out. That sounds easy enough, but those folks from Simplicity have foiled me before, thus making me approach this step with caution. It actually wasn't too bad, but for the fact that I ended up pinning the fabric and pattern to the tablecloth. I even got two pieces cut out before my sister called and Jonathan got up from his nap. Here is the work in progress:



You can actually see the fabric here--won't they be cute??



For some reason, Bryan wanted to capture me actually DOING an arts and crafts project:



I would like to say I will complete cutting out the pieces tomorrow, but I am really not that ambitious. I'm aiming for Flag Day.

I SHOULD have had some great pictures today because we took Jonathan to Waterfront Park this morning. Unfortunately, I forgot the camera at home. They have this great water part where you can shoot water and water comes up from the ground and from above. Some of the water spouts are on a timer so they come on rather unexpectedly. This is the first time Jonathan played there this year and we definitely will be back. The park can get really crowded on nice summer days, but we went before ten this morning to miss both the heat and the crowd. Jonathan completely wore himself out and was dripping wet by the time we left, not to mention sandy, but we had a great time.

He also got a great haircut this afternoon that I tried to get a picture of, but between the lollipop he had for a snack, the Thomas videos and the balloon he got at Cookie Cutters, he absolutely would not hold still for a photograph. So this is the best I could do (please ignore the peanut butter face):



Does that face say I am one month away from being two years old or what??