Kiddy

We had a jam-packed weekend at our house!

First, my parents came to visit on their way out to California to spend Christmas with my brother and his family (yes, they are DRIVING)! Dad spent most of the weekend at a flying workshop and Mom was nice enough to babysit Chase while Brian and I spent all day and overnight in the city Saturday! We had MAJOR shopping to take care of (we are SO behind this year!) and we got my family done (phew!) so now just have to work on finishing up Brian’s.

The city was so beautiful, all lit up for the holidays. We did our usual State Street and Michigan Avenue thing that we do every year (last year I was hugely pregnant so it was nice to be able to walk vs. waddle around downtown this year). We also caught a movie while we were downtown because we discovered a movie theatre just 2 blocks from our hotel. We saw “I am Legend.” It was really good, but VERY intense. Will Smith was great in it.

When we got home Sunday it was time for (dun, dun, dunnnnnnnn)… the CAKE! Some things I learned about birthday cake decorating this weekend:

1. Don’t forget to add water to your cake mix batter. Thank goodness for Mom who realized something was up when I wound the entire batter up the mixer and couldn’t get it out.
2. Don’t let your mom help you get the cake out of the pan with a big knife or you will have to spend extra precious time patching holes (love you, Mom)!
3. You need a “screw thingy” to attach tips to icing bags.
4. The fancy tips you buy at Hobby Lobby don’t screw right onto the frosting tubes (but they SHOULD! Someone invent that)!
5. You need more than a tiny tube of icing to cover a whole cake.
6. To thin out frosting you have to use corn syrup.
7. Sending your husband to the store for corn syrup is never a good idea. Especially when he has already gone through the checkout line once to buy you more frosting.
8. None of the employees at Jewel know what corn syrup is, let alone where to find it.
9. Corn syrup is in the aisle with the maple syrup on the very top shelf in a box.
10. Never let your son taste the frosting before you’re done with the cake or he’ll sit at your feet grunting and shaking his fists at you for more while you’re trying to control your decorating hand.
11. Never set your masterpiece on top of your gas stove where pilot lights continually burn and produce heat (thanks, Brian, for noticing the icing was starting to melt).

So we hit some minor roadblocks along the way but I did manage to pull it off. Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you (drumroll, please)... THE CAKE!!
After that was done (it took me 4 hours, by the way…) Chase helped me wrap his presents (the state of our house should give you a little insight into the state of our minds these days):

When Grandpa got home we opened presents!!

And then my beautiful masterpiece was ripped to shreds....

And on his first birthday Chase spoke his first word. He’s been working on it for awhile now but we finally got it last night: Kitty. And not just “kitty,” but “kiddy,” and more specifically: “kiddykiddykiddykiddykiddykiddykiddy.” Once he said it he was so proud and excited he just couldn't shut up. He said it for the first time after his bath, looking and pointing at Boomerang as I put his PJ’s on. He said it over and over through his goodnights from Grandma and Grandpa, all through his 2 bedtime stories, all through his mommy’s lullabye and hugs and kisses... and then this morning when he woke up and saw the cat it started all over again. This boy LOVES his kitty.

Now that I know he’s a “repeater” (whoah, Seinfeld moment), I’m thinking we probably missed his first “mama” and “dada,” since we often hear “mamamamamamama” but previously dismissed it as gibberish!

I think that’s it, folks! I totally forgot to take his 1-year photo with his teddy bear yesterday but I will do that and post it soon.

I will also publish more photos of this weekend's festivities to our Photo Album once I've compiled them all from various cameras. I'll put an update here when posted. [Update 12/18/07: Photos posted!]
8 days til Christmas!!!!