My mom's birthday was Friday, but due to my dad's work schedule, we celebrated on Saturday. Natalie and I brought a gift over on Thursday when I came to pick up cake pans (I probably should have asked for some for Christmas, now that I think about it!) and I baked the cake on Friday. Thanks to this Pinterest pin, I made crowd-pleasing cake for both my mother-in-law's birthday in October and my mom's birthday. I used only the recipe for the cheesecake and chocolate butter cream frosting and used this Taste of Home recipe for doctoring up a box cake mix. The whole from-scratch cake thing intimidates me, and starting with a box mix and adding a few extra ingredients worked out well. I hope I can find a similar recipe to doctor up a white or yellow cake for Natalie's birthday.
After we got home, Natalie and Alex took a nap together (a rare occurrence) and then we went to our local Christmas parade. Natalie didn't like all the firetruck sirens (I don't blame her), but we gave her a lollipop (what kind of mother am I!?) and all anxiety subsided. It was so funny to me that she immediately knew what to do with it. And then she just chilled out sucking on it until it was all gone. I swear, I was never going to give my kids sugar until I actually became a mom and someone else took over my body!
All the excitement of the day continued after we got home from the parade. My sugar-energized baby decided to take more steps to her daddy and me! She kept walking back and forth between us with this big smile on her face. We cheered and cheered and she just ate it up.
Natalie must have been pretty worn out from the day because SHE FINALLY SLEPT THROUGH THE NIGHT!!!!!!!! She did wake up an hour earlier than usual in the morning, but I can handle a 7 am wake up call better than a 3 or 4 or 5 am wake up call first. Unfortunately, she woke up at 3 am the next night and was awake for 2 hours! Hopefully she'll decide that sleeping is the better option!
After we got home, Natalie and Alex took a nap together (a rare occurrence) and then we went to our local Christmas parade. Natalie didn't like all the firetruck sirens (I don't blame her), but we gave her a lollipop (what kind of mother am I!?) and all anxiety subsided. It was so funny to me that she immediately knew what to do with it. And then she just chilled out sucking on it until it was all gone. I swear, I was never going to give my kids sugar until I actually became a mom and someone else took over my body!
All the excitement of the day continued after we got home from the parade. My sugar-energized baby decided to take more steps to her daddy and me! She kept walking back and forth between us with this big smile on her face. We cheered and cheered and she just ate it up.
Natalie must have been pretty worn out from the day because SHE FINALLY SLEPT THROUGH THE NIGHT!!!!!!!! She did wake up an hour earlier than usual in the morning, but I can handle a 7 am wake up call better than a 3 or 4 or 5 am wake up call first. Unfortunately, she woke up at 3 am the next night and was awake for 2 hours! Hopefully she'll decide that sleeping is the better option!
