Next week starts the new school year for teachers in most of the metro Atlanta area. Mark asked a few days ago if we want to take bets on when Ian will get sick since he will start daycare next week. It has been great being able to spend so much time with him this summer. He is such a little boy now. His sense of curiosity is astounding.
Last week, he had surgery to correct double hydroceles and to "circumcise" him. Hydroceles are like precursors to hernias. They usually close up by a child's first birthday. Since his did not close, they needed to be corrected before hernias developed. The circ was to correct a hooded foreskin. My mama came up to help out. She was a total blessing. He recovered in just a few days.
It has been quite a while since I have been on here. I usually only have time to check my mail, look at a few websites and hop off. Anything that requires typing is difficult to impossible until late at night.
Lets see. What have we been up to the last few months? I personally have packed up my classroom for the summer and sent the kids home for their parents to worry about for 10 weeks. The group I had this year was rough. One of the roughest (not physically, but mentally) I have had in my 13 year career. I have been working on my cake decorating skills and staying home with Ian. It has been wonderful having him home and well the last 3 weeks. No colds, no hand, mouth, and foot, no ear infections, nothing. And it has been great.
As for the little man, he is into everything! There is nothing, NOTHING he will not get into. He has now started climbing everything. If he can get a toe-hold on it, he will climb it. There is nothing that makes him happier than to get something close enough to the living room table or the couch and be able to stand on it to hoist himself up. Today, he discovered he could take all the toys out of his little red wagon, get into it and almost reach the house phone. This feat, when eventually accomplished, will make him the happiest kid on the block. Talking on the telephone is something I cannot do for long periods of time without him wanting to get his sticky hands on it. We started taking a music class on Tuesdays with our friends Kacey and her little guy Harris. It is a class for infants to 3 year olds. They are able to run around, sing, dance, or just ignore things as they wish. The great thing is that they get exposure to instruments and different music with different rhythms.
Okay, on to the good stuff. Pictures and video!
Asleep on Gran Yummy, pineapples! Just hanging out On the way to Olivia's birthday party Fun at the park! Sliding down the slide Wow! How close can I get? We were hiding out in the basement during one of our many tornado warnings this year. This was on the playground at my school. We were there for a faculty/student fundraiser event. In the house we bought him for his birthday
A shameless plug for me :) Here are some pictures of my cakes and cupcakes from the past two months. This is my first try at fondant icing. This was my final cake of course 3. The bottom tier looks lopsided because it shifted in the car on the way to class. These are my baby shower cupcakes. This was the first set I made. They went over so well at work I was asked to make some for a coworker's shower. This cake was a version of the above cake. However, it is not covered in fondant. It is pink buttercream. The roses are not royal icing roses. They are also buttercream. This is my latest cake. It was for Juliet's birthday party. I now have a huge respect for character cakes. This one was difficult. Getting the "picture" right was the most difficult part. I love to draw and thought it would be a breeze. I can always erase pencil sketching. I can't erase icing, especially purple icing.
Ian turned one March 20th! We had his party last weekend, March 22nd. I should have put out this entry sooner, but its been a long week. Besides, today is the day a year ago, that Ian was officially "due."
My mom came into town with Shelby and Jake. They were able to stay the weekend with us. Most, if not all of our local friends and immediate family were able to come. Ian was such a little trooper. He usually needs two naps a day, but he was able to make it all day with only his morning nap. At first when everyone started to arrive he became a little overwhelmed. Mark and his friend Gary took him outside for a little fresh air breather, and he was perfectly okay for the remainder of the party. Party time was 2pm to 4pm, which worked out great. Everyone pretty much started heading out a little after 4. I cooked or prepared everything served. Nothing was store bought except the chips and fruit. I even made his cakes. This floored my mother considering I am her non-cooking child.
The week before we had his one year portraits made. We were surprised that they were able to get so many shots because he was all over the place. Here are just a few. When Blogger decides to stop being flakey, I will add a few of the others.
Ian is now walking! About a week ago, Mark and I were in the living room with Ian. Mark and Ian were doing the kid dancing thing with some Comcast OnDemand Karaoke. Mark lets go of Ian's hands and he takes 3 steps to me. He then turns back and takes three steps back to Mark. We knew then that it would only be a matter of time. Needless to say, Monday afternoon, we are playing in the living room and Ian decides he wants to walk to me. I am so excited and that gets him so excited that he can't get his balance back to repeat it. We then go back to playing and a few minutes later he decides to do it again. We then repeat it when Mark gets home from work. All week we come home and practice. His teachers at daycare say he hasn't been walking but he is standing on his own without holding on to anything.
Just some further updates, Tuesday, February 19th, Ian will have tubes put in both ears. He has had 5 double ear infections since August. The ENT decided that we have been on too many antibiotics for a child his age. He says we have done all we can do. The surgery will take place at an outpatient office at Children's Healthcare of Atlanta very early Tuesday morning.
Back in January we had 2 very significant snowfalls within one week. Here are a few pictures we took. There aren't many because Ian was sick, with ear infections - of course, and we didn't want to keep him out for more than a few minutes.
Here, I caught father and son napping on the couch. What you do not see is the crocheted afghan we were playing with that caused all the static. Mommy and son
In other news, I completed the first course of Wilton's Cake Decorating classes. I have now started Course 2, which is all about flowers and basket weaving. Here are pictures of my cakes.
My first cake - Not the prettiest thing and didn't taste very good either. We were taught to make the Wilton buttercream icing, which has no butter in it. I was not very pleased with the taste so I started playing around with the ingredients to make a better buttercream for the second cake. My first 3 cakes were a basic yellow cake from the box. I am not yet ready to start cakes from scratch. That will come later. Number 2 - My leveling skills needed some work. A much better buttercream, with butter in it. Number 3 - Getting better. Number 4 - This picture does not do it justice. This one was a devil's food cake iced with chocolate buttercream and a chocolate ganache between the layers. It was yummy! Number 5- My first birthday cake. This was a butter receipe cake from the box with a white chocolate ganache for the filling. Number 6 - This was our final project for the final class session for Course 1.
