Our First Birthd...Wait, JESSICA'S First Birthday

Let's just be honest: Jessica's first birthday party was for us as much as her. I love cooking, and Dave is the toy king, and we were glad all the parents stayed to talk to during the party. But I think she liked it too. I hope so; we'd been looking forward to it since Christmas.

In preparation for the big day, I surfed the internet & started sketching cake designs. I practiced a bunch of new cake decorating techniques. (I think I've been watching too many cake-decorating challenges on Food Network.)

In January, I made this pink one: yellow cake with raspberry filling & Dave-made lemon curd, lemon frosting, and pink raspberry marshmallow fondant. I just used a box cake mix, store-bought jam, & tub frosting. But the fondant was from scratch (I had play-dough flashbacks) & I tried edible markers to make the little dots.

Refrigerating the cake made the slices come out perfect-looking, but it was soooo sugary: a 1" slice would give me a headache. 

In February, I experimented with these techniques: drying royal icing decorations, then gluing them on with icing (fish on the sides & the vertical swirls); whipped chocolate ganache filling; chocolate cream cheese frosting (lower sugar); rice crispy shapes (the giant fish); modeling chocolate (dark Ghiradelli's & corn syrup, yum!) in chocolate (fins) and white chocolate, dyed blue (to cover the fish); sugar free cake; making those swirly icing decorations; & dying cake layers.

I still used a boxed white cake mix. And buttercream frosting makes me gag, so I was glad to find another option. The chocolate cream cheese frosting (cream cheese, a little powdered sugar, chocolate chips, & cream) was so decadent---not too sweet---that I added it to my "banned foods" list. (It's 3 desserts that I only get to make once a year, & I have to ask Dave permission first.) I'm not a big fan of cake anyways (I ask for pie on my birthday), so we've been giving out cake right and left.

So when we celebrated Jessica's birthday, I felt more confident about what I was doing. I decided on a farm theme, since Jessica loves animals so much, especially dogs, cats, & cows. Her farm cake on the bottom was chocolate box mix (hey, I wasn't going to add "from scratch" to this already complicated endeavor!) with green cream cheese frosting. The barn was sugar-free yellow with chocolate cream cheese frosting. And the cake board & both cakes were covered with orange-flavored marshmallow fondant. The roofs, mud puddle, dog, etc. are made from modeling chocolate, and some of the animals we made with almond marzipan.

And by "we" I mean me, Dave, and his parents. They were here to celebrate Jessica's birthday (late) & mine. They drove all the way from Houston, & what do I reward them with? A day of slave-driving in the kitchen! Dave's Mom has good cake-decorating experience, & she was a huge help: piping furrows & plants, covering the barn, making the coconut haystack, roofing the barn, etc. Dave's Dad made all those little apples, Dave mixed colors for the animals, & they both hung balloons & streamers. 

I totally could have done the cake myself, as demonstrated by the two previous cakes. But with the party deadline, I WOULDN'T HAVE GOTTEN ANY SLEEP THE NIGHT BEFORE WITHOUT THEM! Thanks Mom & Dad & Dave! 

Of course we know our parents love us, but let's tell the truth, they were there to see their grandchild! They clinched their good favor with Jessica with cuddling, singing, flirting, and this winner of a baby toy: the ball-blowing machine with music. She learned pretty quick how to push the red button, and she was screaming with delight at those flying balls. And that's a blessing of not having the first grandchild: her toys are all pre-tested, grandchild-approved.

That was before she got sick though. She wasn't eating well the day before her party. And unfortunately for her first birthday, along with some lovely gifts, she also got diarrhea, poor girl. So she wasn't her hyper self with the other kids, and she picked at her cake, instead of mashing it in her mouth.

(She got the lumpy silo, and the duck.) We played an animal race game, and had punch balloons (when I saw them in the dollar store, I had a flashback to my own childhood, and bought them.) I wish we could could've invited everyone, but you can only fit so many clowns in a car, you know. We had a great time: thanks to everyone who came and the gifts, all of which Jessica loves.

We delayed Jessica's party by 2 weeks because 2 days after her birthday we would fly to Arizona to meet Jessica's new cousin Graham and see other family. (I'll blog about that trip & the weekend with Dave's parents later.) And I spent the 2 weeks before her actual birthday (Feb 28) finishing a project more important than cake: I made a first-year scrapbook of Jessica for her birth family. They are the whole reason we had an excuse to party. And it's really hard to mail cake. Thanks to Nancy Morris, who helped me make a little month-themed scrapbook years ago; I'd been saving it for this very reason, and it turned out cute.

On Jessica's actual birthday, Dave made a "J" in her birthday pancake. That evening we opened presents: animal puppets & tails. Dave played with her so much she knows how to put her hand inside them. He is fantastic with kids, and I'm so glad he's Jessica's father. His interrupting-cow knock-knock joke is funnier with a cow the size of a boxing glove on the end of his hand.

She also got clothes (size 18 months) & Baby Einstein videos (thanks to my Mom!), glasses (which she loves), Mickey Mouse color wonder paper & markers (and FYI, one month later she can now take off the lids and put them back on, which made me hide all the regular markers.)

See Jessica puffing up her cheeks in the picture? I worked for a month teaching her to blow out matches, hot food, feathers, etc hoping she would be able to blow out her birthday candle. No dice. (She blows everything else now.) After dinner we quickly had some cake, then put her to bed at the neighbors' house. We had tickets to see violinist Itzak Perlman at the Broward performing arts center. (He & his pianist were really amazing, especially when we could see his hands after we moved down from our nosebleed seats.)

Happy 1st Birthday to our wonderful little girl.

Hot Holidays

Well, Christmas morning came, and we were so excited to watch Jessica open presents. Ten years waiting for a Christmas with children! Finally! We were so excited, the night before we broke down and told each other our big gifts, after J was in bed. Despite my vow not to get Dave any more tools, I got him a soldering station. (Now that's love.) He does fix a lot of our broken stuff with borrowed soldering irons.

Dave got me new pans. I tease him that kitchenware is a big hint for me to get back into the kitchen and do some home cooking, since I bought a lot of frozen and prepared food for the last 3 months.

We'd also been wanting to buy the Good Eats DVDs (with crazy chef Alton Brown) and make every recipe. (The next week, we started watching with season 1, episode 1 "Steak Your Claim". It was really educational, since I feel like I know nothing about cuts of meat. We cooked a great ribeye in cast iron.)

The next morning we got up about 7 am and brought Jessica out into the front room. She was a champ at opening presents all morning, starting with the first:

Among the highlights are this toddler foam chair, which I think is adorable and fits her just right;

this homemade dress and matching hat sent by her Grandma Eyring;

and a lot of books and toys with buttons and lights. Her favorite thing is turning pages and opening and shutting things. She loves playing with her new foam letters during her bath, so now her tub looks like there's a wee little suckling pig, swimming in alphabet soup!

Jessica didn't need any help devouring this chocolate-covered raspberry stick:

Dave made wood blocks for Jessica from the discarded floorboards of our church's gym floor after it was water-damaged. Both of our fathers made blocks for us kids, so it was a sweet tradition to see Dave carrying on. He wrapped them in saran wrap, since I didn't get around to sewing a drawstring bag.

And after begging for a year, I finally got archery lessons, which I started today. The weapon of choice of my favorite story heroines is a bow and arrow: I blame Chronicles of Narnia and The Hunger Games. 

After the lesson, I couldn't wipe the smile off my face; it was so fun! I felt safe, and was pretty consistent, even though we were only 20 feet from the target. I told Dave everything, and he was like "Yeah, I got the archery merit badge at scout camp." Uuuuuhhhhhnnnn!!!! Boys get to do all the fun stuff!

Anyways, back to last week: We went to Miami for a 2-day trip. First stop: Monkey Jungle. (It was fun, but we thought Butterfly World and Gatorland were better half-day attractions for the same price.)

Monkey Jungle was unique because, like their ads say: "the people are in cages and the monkeys run free!" Jessica liked them a lot when she they were right in front of her, swinging around, and screaming loudly.

The weather was a perfect 70 degrees, and it was fun to get away and do something different.

Jessica was a pretty good trooper, sitting in the car and stroller so much. Below she's pictured in her smaller car seat, which she's really too tall for. (Her weight gain has slowed down: less than a pound in 6 weeks---great news for us, whose arms are falling off from packing her around.)

When we let her loose in the hotel room that evening, she was on turbocrawl and high speed jabber-scream. And she decided it was time to start pulling herself up to stand. The low side of the bathtub and her pack-n-play were her first. It was the day before New Year's Eve, so she was exactly 10 months old.

Last week on Christmas Eve, she showed us she can clap. And in the last 2 weeks, she's learned to comb her hair, sit Indian-style, hold her breath, identify and say "dots", point her finger, raise her hand, and cover her ears. Her hair is long enough I can put a *little* tiny clip in the top center of her head. When we reach across the table to hold hands during the blessing on the food, she puts her hand on top of ours for a second. She knows how to say "mmmm" for yummy food, and since she can't do the baby sign for 'more' (food), she's trained us to feed her with her own: she either yodels with her lips together, or growls with her "mmmm" if she wants food.

Unfortunately, she also squirms in her stroller (turning around or jumping out--which earned her that forehead scrape) and throws bigger fits. When she is really angry at us, she'll stare straight ahead, hold her arm up, then punch us in the mouth and try to rip our lips off. But now we usually see it coming and stop her. She's going to be great in martial arts.

But really, she's a sweetie. And a waffle thief, caught red-handed, below. Today she decided she can put her hands on the tabletop and stand on her tiptoes. Yesterday she stood at the piano bench and listened to me play. After a while she started whimpering, and I thought, 'I'll just finish playing this line". When I looked down she was stuck halfway down in the splits, one foot under the piano, the other under the rug, and her nose just over the bench and wobbling all over. {I made Dave snarf and choke on his own spit when I told him that story.}

Anyway, back to the narrative. The next day (New Year's Eve Day) we went to the Bill Baggs state park on Key Biscayne to see the lighthouse. This lighthouse is older than the Jupiter one, with a more tenuous history: blown up in the Indian Wars; surrounding area almost sold off for development; plant life stripped off in Hurricane Andrew... The tour of the lighthouse and keeper's home was good and included in the park admission.

The climb was a bit scary because the stairs are only anchored on the center pole, which swayed a lot with the tour group all climbing it. But the view was beautiful.

The keeper's house was quaint.

But Jessica's favorite part was her 10 minutes in the water. IT DIDN'T EVEN PHASE HER THAT THE WATER WAS COLD, or salty, or rushing up to her. She was trying to crawl straight into the sea, and threw a 10-minute fit when we left. Little Miss No-Fear won't have any swimming issues...Come to think of it, we also now call her Miss Wiggles, and Destructo Girl. (If she were raised in an Indian tribe, she would be very easy to name.)

Our favorite part was the family bicycle ride, after which we had a delicious seaside meal (paella & plantains and crab dip).

Dave's brother Danny, who lives in Idaho, texted Dave a picture of himself on a campout, waste-deep in fresh snow. So Dave texted this tropical picture back: surrounded by blue water and fluffly white sand. Tiny contrast in habitats for these brothers. (oops, their caption should read Dec 30 and 31 of 2010.)

We also tried to visit the nearby Barnacle, home of a famous old Florida shipbuilder. It was in beautiful downtown old Miami, which was gearing up for New Years. After waking up Jessica, paying for parking, and paying for admission, and walking a stretch, they were going to charge us again just to get inside the house. The tour guide sounded boring, so we just read the signposts and left. But we did see several beautiful peacock art statues, which I guess represent old Peacock family founders.

 
We detoured to Vizcaya, a very old, elaborate, expensive estate of a farm machinery baron. It's pretty much a shrine to old world culture and mythology and money. We weren't allowed to photograph the insides, which were tapestried, gold-leafed, carved, and embellished to the hilt. It's like the Flagler Museum, only more pagan, with better gardens. Some of our pics include Ponce de Leon,

a lady lion statue,

 and the mazey, awfully romantic gardens and fountains.

The funniest part of our trip happened on the freeway our drive home. Dave, despite his habit of keeping his tank at least a quarter full, and preaching to me about riding around on emtpy, RAN OUT OF GAS. I just laughed and read a book while waiting to get refueled. We got home in time to watch the new Karate Kid, play Yatzhee & drink sparkling grape juice, say happy new year and go to bed. Despite my holiday stress, and the fact that we were sad to be away from our family, it was a great end to the best year of our lives.

Thanksgiving

We had a nice quiet Thanksgiving. Dave enjoyed his 4-day weekend, and I got 4 days off working on the Nativity. The day started with Dave running 4 miles in the local "Run for the Pies" in which the first couple hundred people across the finish line won a pie.

Two years ago he ran this race with my sister and her husband, and we thought it was a 5k (3.1 miles). This year he trained for 4 miles and was pleased he improved his time by a whole minute, and got a Publix apple pie.

Jessica and I waited at the playground during the race. She had no fear; she climbed all over and was happy to have kids running all around her.

Dave cooked ALL of Thanksgiving dinner. I had been only buying instant & frozen food, and hadn't made any plans by the Saturday before Thanksgiving.  Dave took the initiative: "I'm making a list and going shopping, Liz. What do we need?"

Dave and I love watching Alton Brown's Good Eats. Dave used Brown's recipe to brine our turkey for the second year. 

All I did to help was set the table, take pictures, and beg for vegetables besides everyday broccoli and carrots. Dave got me spagetti squash and artichoke--yum. Besides some extra salty potatoes, everything was perfect. He even did all the dishes. Thanks, hon.

We failed to get a good picture of all of us.

Jessica chowed down and used our tablecloth as a napkin for her hands. Here she bites a stuffing popsicle.

Here's Jessica's opinion of the meal:

After Jessica's morning nap on Black Friday, we went shopping. Jessica lasted about 4 hours--the last hour we had to switch toys, snacks, or distracting games every 5 minutes. But we made it to 4 stores and picked up some deals.

We wanted to buy ALL of the toys from our childhood for her THAT DAY. We had to keep telling ourselves "She's too young for a:
dial-up phone
lite-brite
legos or duplos
tricycles
toy food and kitchens
science kits, especially involving rockets
Playdough
bristle bricks
anything Crayola
giant puzzles
popcorn pusher
toy register with plastic coins
Lincoln logs or tinker toys
etc.etc.etc."

She can't stand, and she doesn't really know how to use her shapes bucket or the wood puzzles she has now. Her first birthday is in 2 months anyhow, so we can get other toys then. We opted for a giant plush lion, balls, a 3-D bookmark, a baby laptop with buttons and lights and music, foam bath letters and a doggie washcloth mitten, and a short push toy with music & buttons.

I also bought her a cute stripey outfit (which says size 24 months but will probably fit her this summer.)  Our little baby is growing like a weed: she turned 9 months this weekend, but is wearing 9 & 12 month clothes already. She has long outgrown her little baby bjorns/slings, so we also got a frame baby backpack off Craigslist. We already tested it and it works great. We also Amazoned a plastic, indestructible Nativity.

Saturday we pulled out the decorations, and Jessica loved the loud plastic sparkly tree beads.

Dave persuaded me we needed a real tree. It's been 5 years with only the fake 3-footer. So Jessica went with us to get the skinniest tree in the lot. (I thought that was a funner milestone than seeing Santa.) She just thought it interesting, but spikey. I've been letting her play with the little tree (shown below), and our Christmas bells. So far she's pretty obedient about not pulling ornaments off, and Smokey has no interest in the trees either...but we'll see.

I also found the cutest Christmas PJs for her with "I've been good" and reindeer all over. But she kept pulling at the forearm sleeves, which were too tight, so we cut them off.

We're terribly excited for Christmas this year (we're staying in Florida), and very grateful for our little Jessica.

What a girl wants

We are so glad to have all your well-wishes about our adoption, so long in coming. It's twice as sweet to share our little victory with you.

Several of you have asked what we need or if we're registered anywhere. We feel if you are kind enough to be generous to our new-parent cause, you can get us whatever you feel like new parents can't live without. Because what we really need is advice. I would love presents attached to tips. (If you did like my friend Cris Rabbage, who advised me to teach Gianna when I was babysitting to drink baby food through a straw [it's faster and less messy] then you gave me a package of straws, I'd be very happy.)

We have some stuff from when I babysat before, stuff already given, & stuff we bought because we need it right away. If you get Jessica something, make a comment or tell me and I'll move it to the 'have' list.

We now have (this list is updated from time to time):
+ 20 blankets

+ Crib, sheets, bumpers
+ curved changing pad, 1 cover, diaper pail, nightlights, hamper
+ stroller, car seat, pack-n-play, jumper, glider-rocker, swing, bouncer
+ blessing dress
+ diaper bag, carry sling, Snugli carrier, car mirror, car seat toys
+ dresses, shoes, booties, onsies & rompers, socks, mittens, hats, hangers, 6 mo. swimsuit

+ thermometer, baby grooming kit, bath stuff

+ bottles, pacifiers, dishwasher cage, bottle wash stand, food grinder
+ "Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child" sleep bible, "BabyWise", "Caring for Your Baby and Child", "12 Hours Sleep by 12 Weeks Old", baby memory book

+ some music CDs, stuffed animals, board books

We are looking for: (used and hand-me-down is great!)
- shoes, pants 6 mo.+, hair bows/clips
- dishes, sippies, teethers, feeding chair (no room for a highchair)

- books, music CDs

- church quiet toys, crib toys

and who knows what else, because really, we're in the dark. Tell us what we need to do!