Smiling Mom

Hey! We had eClaire’s birth­day party on Satur­day!! It was really, really fun! (Pho­tos)

Sooo… let’s talk about me!!

Check out what I did!!

No seriously, I did that!!

Dora! That’s right! Me!

I’m no Casey, who is A.MAZ.ING, but hot damn. I’m pretty proud of my first attempt at being Baker Extraordinaire!

Shh, don’t tell anyone, but it was actually quite easy. I Goo­gle searched for a Dora the Explo­rer cake tem­plate and found that NickJr. actually has step by step direc­tions. Oh, I was quite excited. 

Martha Ste­wart here I come!

Here’s the scene:

A friend’s son’s first birth­day party. It’s 100 degrees outside. Yes, in April, one hun­dred degrees. We arri­ved just 10 minu­tes before. BC had already befrien­ded a cou­ple girls in their early twen­ties and was asking them to play. eClaire was dres­sed ado­rably in her baby doll red and white flo­wer dress, coming just to her bot­tom with red briefs under­neath. She was stan­ding in the cor­ner of the back­yard, hol­ding onto the fence, sta­ring expres­sion­less at the lady trying to make nice to her.

Could that be eClarie’s ‘poop’ face I see? Couldn’t pos­sibly! eClaire already had a nice, mushy diarrhea just hours before. Damn molars. Na, she’s just being shy.

eClaire is fee­ling more com­for­ta­ble, walks toward the ren­ted cir­cu­lar table and says, “Hi,” to the lady who was pre­viously making nice to her.

Smi­ling Mom: “Ah, that’s nice. She rarely talks with peo­ple other than those she’s most com­for­ta­ble with.”

eClaire to me: “Up, peese” I love the man­ners on my 15 month old. Or maybe she just doesn’t know any dif­fe­rent at this point.

I promptly lift her up to my lap. She’s clingy, and I feed into it. I just love having a daugh­ter who wants to be cudd­led by me.

She sits on my lap, and imme­dia­tely gets down. 

I look down ‚at my lap, to my cute new shorts and my inex­pen­sive, yet sty­lish new tank top.

There is a puddle, Puddle of liquidy, chunky diarrhea laying on it. 

Diarrhea num­ber two of three for the day just happened.

That little shit. 

Last night we had the long awai­ted cele­bra­tion. Since Hubby had the flu for his pro­mo­tion and party, we resche­du­led the re-do for last night. I began the shop­ping on Wed­nes­day, baking and laundry on Thurs­day, clea­ning and set­ting up yes­ter­day. For­tu­na­tely with Hubby’s less stress­ful work sche­dule, he was around for a good chunk of time on Wed­nes­day and Thurs­day and all day on Fri­day to help out. It was very easy to get ready for this party since Hubby work sche­dule is so much less hec­tic. We had the house vir­tually ready to go by 3:00 for our 7:00 party. Not bad!

Bac­king up to Thurs­day, Hubby the kids and I went for a two mile walk to Star­bucks and back. BC rode his tricycle and eClaire was in the stroller.

BC on his trike!

While we were out, I got a call from a friend, Mrs. I. She asked if I could watch her dar­ling daugh­ters for a few hours. No pro­blem! They pla­yed with eClaire while BC slept and I clea­ned out the fridge, tho­roughly. It was awe­some! As Mrs. I was lea­ving my house, she sug­ges­ted that her daugh­ters would love it if BC came over and spend the night.… so he did!! I pac­ked his bags, put him in the car and waved, “Bye, bye!”

2 1/2 years old and already has had his first slee­po­ver! It was such a bles­sing because Mrs. I gave me the gift of time Thurs­day eve­ning to bake sugar coo­kies, 4 chee­se­ca­kes, two dif­fe­rent types of cho­co­late chip coo­kies, and time on Fri­day mor­ning to clean the house. BC came home at 1:30 Fri­day after­noon, ate and took a nap until 4:00. This was a good thing because he sta­yed up until 9:00 p.m. pla­ying with the other kids who came to the party.

I guess HM, girl to the right of green-haired BC in the pic­ture said to BC in the car, “BC, do you want to sleep with me tonight?” to which BC res­pon­ded, “Yes, I do. I really, really do!” So cute… but if this con­ver­sa­tion hap­pens again in another 10 years… Lord help me!

Any­way, the party was a fan­tas­tic suc­cess. May more kids came than I was expec­ting, but all young ones had a blast. There was more alcohol here than we will ever use. Beer, cigars, wine and des­sert was loved by all in atten­dance. But mostly, we were surroun­ded by friends and family that have made a dif­fe­rence in our lives. The eclec­tic group of peo­ple meshed so well, and many sta­yed until the wee hours of the night. Our last guests left around 1:30 this mor­ning. It was so much fun. Hubby has been a really hard wor­ker, and is now begin­ning to see the fruits of his labor. I am so proud of him.

I char­ged my camera last night but, of course, I for­got to take pic­tu­res. The only pic­tu­res I have are of the kids, not the party. So I’ll leave you today with the best pic­ture of the cutest girl. eClaire gets today’s award for being the most ado­ra­ble child I’ve ever come across!! She is found, at all times, with at least three nec­kla­ces around her neck, clutching a purse and tal­king on a cell phone. Honestly, girls are so dif­fe­rent than boys!

Stop by and have a glass of wine with me, one of these days. I have tons left!!

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Bac­king up two weeks…

eClaire was sick with the flu for a week straight. It was horri­ble. She had the runs and didn’t eat or drink vir­tually anything for a week. The last two major days of her flu, she threw up and was mise­ra­ble. She just wan­ted to be held.

During this time, it was my job to orga­nize and pre­pare for Steve’s pro­mo­tion party. I bought a sexy new dress from Macy’s, bought a tie and but­ton down shirt along with shiny black shoes for Bro. Clea­ned the house, made 4 chee­se­ca­kes, star sugar coo­kies, which were deli­cious with a sil­ve­rish fros­ting, to make them look like bad­ges. Also, I made a dou­ble batch of coo­kies. I was on the edge of melt-down. But exci­ted for the upco­ming party. On Wed­nes­day eve­ning, eClaire had her first meal since the pre­vious Sun­day. On Thurs­day, Hubby got sick. And when I say sick, I mean “ring a bell and come help me” sick! It was not good. We ended up in Urgent Care on Thurs­day, can­ce­led the pro­mo­tion and the party sche­du­led for Fri­day and went back to the ER on Sun­day. Finally on Tues­day, Hubby began fee­ling bet­ter. It’s been one hell of a ride.

Don’t worry, all chee­se­ca­kes were eaten. One by me, thank you very much! And all are fee­ling bet­ter. Aside from a snotty nose and cough, our kids and adults are healthy. Thank goodness.

For Valentine’s Day/Birthday, Hubby sur­pri­sed me with a day away. Not only did he find me a friend to go eat lunch with at Lisa’s Tea Trea­su­res, but he also sche­du­led a mani­cure and pedi­cure at a really nice spa called Burke William Spa. It was fan­tas­tic. But best of all, he orga­ni­zed all this and a baby­sit­ter to come watch the kids without me kno­wing. He then sent me off with cash to spend so this fun excur­sion wouldn’t show up on our cre­dit card later. Now that, my friends, is sexy!!

There is nothing like a few hours of rejuvenation!

Now I’ll leave you with a few of my favo­rite current pic­tu­res of my babies. Enjoy!

Bro dres­sed up like a hero

eClaire, ready to fight!

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