Kid Quote of the Day

Amanda:  Mommy, what should I be when I grow up?

Me:  You can be whatever want.  You should be something that makes you happy.

Amanda:  A unicorn!

The Four Day Cake

A day or two before Andy's birthday he asked me if he could help make his cake this year.  I though that would be cool and fun.  How many kids want to do that with their moms?  I asked him what kind of cake he wanted and he said white cake with white frosting and a jelly filling.  Yeah, he's kind of boring and doesn't really like chocolate cake or frosting, but the jelly filling was a nice touch.  Except I've never made jelly filling before.  So, in my procrastinating, lazy kind of way I waited until the morning of his birthday to find a recipe for jelly filling.  I very un-carefully read the directions and realized that once we made the filling we would have to chill it for eight hours.  That did not leave time for us to make it together.

I went to the grocery store and got all the ingredients but also picked up a little cake.  A delicious strawberry shortcake to be exact.  When I picked him up from school I explained that we would have to chill the filling for too long to be able to eat it that day, his birthday, but that we could finish it the next day and have it with Charlie, who was out of town.  Plus he would get cake two days in a row because I had bought the other one.  He was actually cool with it and thought it was a great solution.  Whew!

Remember when I told you that I didn't read the directions very carefully?  Well the next day we went to finish making the cake and found that after you put the jelly between the layers you had to chill the cake for another several hours.  Not enough hours in the day to do that.  So, no cake on day two.  He was still good with it.  On day three we were supposed to frost the cake and then chill it for another two hours.  I kid you not.  We got busy and forgot to frost the cake and therefore did not chill it and so one more day went by and we did not eat his cake.

Fear not!  On day four I finally got my shit together and frosted and chilled the cake on time for dinner.  It was fabulous, everyone was happy, and Andy even thought it was cool that we celebrated his birthday for four days.  The benefit of having a (mostly) laid back twelve year old.  As it turned out, the cake was delicious and we had a ton of filling left over and have been using it on pancakes and waffles for the last two weeks.  I see that as a major win win for everybody!


The finished cake before we cut into it:

What it looked like inside:

The First But Not The Last

A few days ago Amanda showed me that she had a loose tooth.  She was so excited.  She has seen Sarah and Andy go through the process of finding out their teeth were loose, wiggling them for weeks or just days, losing them and being rewarded by the tooth fairy for them.  She has been waiting and waiting for her turn.

On Saturday morning I went off to do something with a couple of friends and Charlie took her to soccer and then took both girls to swimming.  When we are reconvened at the house she had lost a tooth!  But it wasn't even the one she had told me about, it was the one next to it.  That means she has a second one close behind and will be visited by the tooth fairy again very soon.

She wanted to leave the tooth under her pillow by itself, but we finally convinced her to put it in the little tooth pillow that I had made for her (Sarah has one too, but by the time I found out about them and had them made Andy was a little old for one).  That makes it much easier for the tooth fairy.

Here's a picture of the happy girl.  Ignore the crazy hair, it was post swimming craziness.

And Then He Turned 12

Andy's twelfth birthday was this week.  I cannot believe that I am going to have a teenager next year!  Not that things will change much, he already acts like a teenager.  But I must say that although he does have his moments, he is an incredible kid.  Yes, he does play too many video games, I was reprimanded of this while at the pediatrician for his well visit, but he is turning into an amazing human being.  He might even be able to function in society.  One day last week I brought the groceries in from the car and needed to rush out again, and he put everything away.  In the correct place.  He is paying attention and the things we are trying to teach him are finally sinking in.

What they say is true - the days are long but the years are short.  I remember when the cutest baby ever came home with us from the hospital and the years have flown by.  Now we only have six more years with him until he goes to college.  Six years is nothing.  Hopefully those are the best years yet to come.

Kid Quote of the Day

Me:  Who is that?

Amanda:  Martin Luther King.

Me:  Nope.

Amanda:  That log cabin dude.

Me:  Yes, Abraham Lincoln.

I think she's learning something at school, but I'm not exactly sure what.

Rise and Shine...Or Not

I know I am not going to do this story justice.  And the crazy thing is that it was just a blip.  It happened so quickly and then it was over.  Someday I will figure out the art of telling this story, but today will probably not be it.  I'll try anyway.


Early this morning Andy came into my room.  He was showered and dressed and had already had his first bowl of cereal when he realized that I had not come down and was, maybe, not coming down.  So he came to get me.  "Mom, wake up!  It's time to go downstairs."


I was a little flustered that I hadn't heard my alarm, because I know I had set it, and something was just off.  I turned the alarm off, got out of bed and grabbed my phone.  As I was heading down the stairs I started up my phone and looked at the time.  12:37 a.m.  WHAT?!?  I looked again.  Yep, it was just past midnight.  No wonder my alarm hadn't gone off.


I told Andy that it was only 12:37 a.m. and he looked at me like I had two head.  "But my alarm went off...", looks at the wall clock.


Yes, his alarm did go off.  But we had about an hour power outage that day and his alarm clock reset to the basic settings, which is 12:00 a.m. for the alarm.  He fixed the time but didn't think or know to fix the alarm.


He told me tonight that he was super tired when his alarm went off, couldn't believe how tired he was, but didn't question it or look at the time for that matter.  Took his shower, got dressed and then wondered why it was so quiet in the house and I wasn't up yet.


Luckily we were both able to fall right back asleep, but I did have to wake him up when it really was 6:00 a.m., because he had already turned off his alarm clock for the day.

Kid Quote of the Day

Amanda:  Mommy, can I eat my chocolate coin now?

Me:  Sure, where is it?

Amanda:  I put it in my shoe.


Gross.  Just gross.  But she of course happily ate it.