cake

Trip to NJ

December 30, 2009 by Jessica

As we had been planning, we decided to head to New Jersey to celebrate Micah’s birthday, Chanukah, Elliot’s brother Dan’s birthday, and his nephew Brian’s birthday with his family. On December 29th, we packed up and took off on our trip. Not surprisingly, traffic was a bit heavy, and we left later than originally planned.

I was driving, but the morning sickness was making the drive challenging for me. Micah was actually wide awake for the first 1 1/2 hours of the trip (we were hoping he would fall asleep quickly and nap for most of the trip). Luckily he was in a good mood, playing with his toys and enjoying the Elmo CD playing in the car.

About 1 hour or so into the trip, Micah started playing his new “game.” You see, he thinks it is funny to stick his fingers so far down into his throat that it makes him gag. It is an awful sound (especially for someone like me who already feels nauseated), and I just think it is a terrible thing to do! He sticks his fingers down his throat, he gags, and then he laughs and does it again. I kept telling him no and told him to stop, but that just seemed to make him want to do it more. I tried to ask Elliot to give him some food or a bottle or another toy to distract him, but no such luck. I actually said to Elliot that if we didn’t get him to stop, he would make himself throw up. No sooner than I said that…yup, you guessed it, Micah puked all over himself. And started laughing. He thought it was hysterical! All I could think about was the smell and wanting to throw up myself.

We pulled over to the side of the road in the middle of nowhere on the highway. Elliot did the best he could to wipe him down, but we decided in the cold weather and on the side of the road, it was too difficult to change Micah. So…we got back on the road. Micah quickly fell asleep asleep after this, but I kept smelling vomit the entire trip.

Micah woke up near a rest stop about 30 miles from our destination. We decided to pull over, change his diaper and clothing and give him a snack. He was really cooperative and enjoyed his break, but he was very unhappy to be returned to the car. The last part of the trip was awful – Micah was crying and the traffic was terrible.

We finally arrived around 5:30 pm. I was still so sick from the traveling that I immediately threw up. Micah spent some time with his cousins Melissa, Brian and Stephanie and Aunt Jodi and Uncle Steven while I did my best to recover (and popped another Zofran). We headed out to dinner to celebrate Brian’s birthday at this cute little restaurant, but it was FREEZING cold there! We had these incredible potato chips (made fresh), but I couldn’t get Micah to eat the macaroni and cheese or any other food. Micah started to melt down towards the end of dinner, so we headed back to the house and quickly put him down to sleep. He was not thrilled to be sleeping in a new environment, unfortunately, so it took him a while to fall asleep – he needed Mommy to stay in the room and hold his hand for a while.

Elliot and I stayed awake until about 2:45 talking to our nieces and nephew. We finally went up to bed, got settled in, and I even got into bed without waking Micah who was sound asleep in the pack ‘n play next to the bed. Until Elliot made a ton of noise in the hallway and woke him up!! Micah was crying and would not stop, so I had to pull him into bed with us. Naturally, Elliot passed out a few minutes later, and I was awake for the next 1 1/2 hrs with a very perky Micah who wanted nothing more than to cuddle with Mommy and bounce on the bed. Finally, Micah fell asleep around 4:30. I woke Elliot up to help me move Micah back to the pack ‘n play so I could get some sleep.

Around 6:00 am, the room started to get very hot. By 7:00, it was almost unbearable, and Micah woke up crying. I knew we were in for a long day!! We opened up the door to the bedroom and got Micah’s bottle. He drank his milk and fell asleep again for another hour. By 9:00, I took him downstairs and gave him breakfast. I think he threw most of it on the floor, but he was having fun. After breakfast, he kept using the chair as a “walker” and he made circles around the first floor. We managed to get him down for a nap, and he woke up in time for the rest of the family to start arriving.

Daniel, Jody and Ethan arrived first. The kids all played together while we waited for their grandparents to arrive. We also learned that Micah is quite musical – he was enjoying playing the piano with his cousin Brian. He was actually pretty good. I do think he has a musical sense – he loves to bang on things like drums, and in music class, he loves to dance and shake the egg shakers to the music, and he loves both real pianos and his toy piano. Grandma Roberta and Poppy Ira arrived around 1:00, and we had a wonderful lunch of latkes. We exchanged gifts and then had birthday cake, and just had a lovely day together.

Most of the family left by 4:00. We stayed a few hours longer to feed Micah dinner. We put him to sleep in the car around 7:30, and we had an easy ride home (except for my nausea). We stopped to pick up the dog, then went straight back to our house. It was a very nice visit!

Halloween

November 1, 2009 by Jessica

We’ve had a great Halloween week! I’m feeling much better, my father was released from the hospital late Wednesday, and we’ve been Halloween party fools! Micah was dressed up as a dragon for Halloween (we had a hand-me-down costume from our friends Jen and Dave). We kicked off Halloween with a parade and party at Micah’s daycare:

After the daycare party, we went to Kidville for a Halloween party and Little Maestros concert! Micah had a ton of fun dancing and clapping.

Today, we went to celebrate my niece’s 2nd birthday. Unfortunately, Micah was a bit cranky, and we forgot to take pictures of him in his Jack-o-Lantern shirt. We made a chocolate peanut butter Mickey Mouse cake for Peyton, and it was a big hit! What could be bad about Mickey, balloons and peanut butter?

After my niece’s party, Micah took a long nap in the car. We decided to swing by Micah’s friend Zach’s birthday party. I had also made a birthday cake for him – ELMO!!

We arrived quite late (and had to wait for Micah to wake up from his nap), so we missed the Little Maestro’s performance, but he still had fun playing with all the gym equipment.

Tonight, Elliot took Micah out trick or treating for a bit. We had a mad rush of kids, so it was a good thing they went out – without their treats, we would have run out of candy for the kids coming by! As Elliot says, reduce, reuse, recycle!

Micah is now quietly tucked away in bed. We’re exhausted, and I have to pack and get ready for ANOTHER business trip tomorrow. I’m off to Minneapolis – I hear it is FREEZING there.

Swine Flu and Baking

October 21, 2009 by Jessica

It is official – we have a case of swine flu in Micah’s daycare class. Apparently, a child went home sick on Friday, and he and his parent have been diagnosed with swine flu. I’m hoping that since we have shown no signs or symptoms yet means we have passed the incubation period and all is well. To make matters worse (as if I’m not already freaking out about germs), the caretaker in Micah’s class had a cold yesterday. Yes, a cold. I went to pick Micah up, and she was all stuffed up, coughing, and well…sick. I’m sure it isn’t the flu, but really – did she HAVE to expose Micah to her cold? He just got over being sick last month! And I certainly don’t need to be sick with all of the traveling I’m doing. I do not need my lungs compromised in any way if there is a chance I could catch the flu!

I hate all this fear about flu. I’ve never worried about the flu before – in my life, I’ve only had it 2 times. It has never been a big deal. It is funny – I catch everything else, but I’ve been relatively flu-free most of my life. I’ve never gotten the flu vaccine either. I am still not concerned about the seasonal flu, and to be honest, I am just not that excited about H1N1. For whatever reason, if I catch it, I just do not think it will be a big deal. Perhaps I should, but I feel like I’ll go to the doctor, get Tamiflu, go on antibiotics if I get a lung infection, and all will be well.

In the midst of all of this, the H1N1 vaccinations have arrived at our pediatrician’s office. Both Micah and I cold get vaccinated, but they do not yet have the thimerosal-free (and squalene-free) version yet. So – do I give Micah the vaccine now, or wait an extra month for the safer vaccine? I hate these kind of decisions! I am currently leaning towards waiting. Most of the cases of swine flu seem to be no worse than regular flu. Not that I wish flu on either one of us, but part of me feels that getting the flu might be safer than taking the vaccine. I am also not certain that Micah did not already have swine flu last month when he was sick (although, I suppose Elliot and I would have caught it, too, if it was swine flu).

This morning I called to schedule his second dosage of the regular flu shot – and was told I should call back in November. I am so frustrated by all of this! They would not give me information about which version of the H1N1 vaccine they are currently using, or when they expect to get the thimerosal-free version. I cannot get good information about what to do. The CDC recommends vaccinating, but declines to comment on either thimerosal or squalene at this time. While they will not approve these ingredients in other vaccines, the FDA has suspended most of the guidelines for the H1N1 vaccine for the next six months. I’m sorry – if something was unsafe last month, and it will be unsafe again in six months, isn’t it unsafe now?

On the one hand, the studies show there is no connection between thimerosal and autism. Fine – I believe that. HOWEVER, we are encouraged NOT to feed children fish with mercury because even the low doses have been shown to affect brain development. Okay. I can accept that. Then how is thimerosal in the H1N1 vaccine safe? To make matters worse, due to the shortage of vaccinations, there are adjuvants that contain squalene in this version of the H1N1 vaccination. Apparently, there is some relatively new and untested research that indicates that adjuvants *might* cause autoimmune disorders in both adults and children. Until better research is done, how can I comfortably give such a vaccine to Micah? Several states have banned doctors from administering the H1N1 vaccine to pregnant women and children under 3. Moreover, this vaccination has been rushed to market prior to FDA approval and without testing. It is presumed the vaccine will do no harm because it was developed with the same techniques as the regular seasonal flu vaccine. But, with different ingredients in the vaccine, how can they be sure?

In other news, I’m busy cake-baking. I have a cake to do for a friend (I’m making a pumpkin chocolate chip cake) and next weekend I have a cake for my niece’s second birthday, and my friend’s son’s first birthday. I’ll be baking my pants off this week in order to get everything finished on time! The good news is that it appears my edible image printer should be back in order! We purchased a new printer head, so tonight I will attempt to replace it and hope that it starts working again. I’m not sure how I will get through the next week without it. I’ll post cake pictures soon.

Little Mermaid

September 14, 2009 by Jessica

Sorry for the long hiatus – my computer hard drive died, and I haven’t had access in over one week! I’ve got a ton of blogs I’ve been writing, but no way to upload them. I’ll catch up over the next few days. For now, however, it’s cake time….

Here is a cake I made for my niece Paige’s birthday this past weekend. She wanted a Little Mermaid cake. I considered a bunch of different styles, but decided to use the Mattel Shimmer Princess doll and decorate around her. The mound was a strawberry cake, and the bottom layer is chocolate. I made the shells from white chocolate (using candy molds). I wanted to make a Flounder and a Sebastian out of either white chocolate or an edible image, but my printer and computer were malfunctioning and I did not have enough time to make them out of chocolate. I sprinkled some brown sugar to make sand. I also had made coral out of royal icing, but it was not dry enough to attach to the cake. So, here is the end result – not quite what I envisioned, but my niece was thrilled! Funny how I always look at these cakes and see the things that did not happen as I planned.

Baby Shower Cake

August 13, 2009 by Jessica

As promised, here is a picture of the cake I did for my friend’s baby shower:

As usual, I was not pleased with how it came out. I think it needed more color. The shoes were looking good, but they were white. They were not *quite* dry (because I did them the same day) and I decided to try and airbrush them yellow, which just made them wet and they started to collapse. I have to buy more airbrush colors – my makeshift coloring technique was not so good.

Ah well, I learn something new each time!

I cried my eyes out

April 13, 2009 by Jessica

Today was Micah’s first day at child care at The Children in the Shoe, and I cried my eyes out! He is now officially a Little Star (I had it wrong before . . . I thought he was going into the Lambs classroom). I always knew he was a superstar!

Our day was crazy (as usual). We went to our playgroup this morning, and we brought a kosher for Passover birthday cake we baked for one of the other moms. Nothing fancy, but it wasn’t bad for a Passover cake.

Micah had a great time at playgroup! He played on the playmat, and his friend Juliet couldn’t stop running her fingers through his hair (okay, more like grabbing a chunk, but at that age, same thing!!) They were even holding hands for a while. I think some of the other women took some photos – I will try and update those later.

We stayed a little too long at playgroup, and I needed to race out of there and get gas for Elliot’s car. We finally made it to the daycare center at 2:00 – about 1/2 hour later than I’d planned. I brought him back to the room, and left him there. As I walked out . . . I started to bawl. I was just so sad to leave him. I was worried he would be afraid with all the strangers, and I didn’t want him to be sad or lonely. I kept thinking they wouldn’t talk to him enough and that he would not get enough stimulation. Crazy, right? It also worries me that many of them speak with an accent, and I worry that hearing poor English will affect his language development. I went to the office and filled out all the paperwork, and then I went back and checked on him. He was sitting in a bouncy seat, playing with a blue stuffed elephant. He wasn’t smiling and chatting like he does at home, but he looked like he was fine, so I ran out of there in a mad race to get to my meeting on time!

My meeting went well – I won’t bore you with the details, but it looks like I have a chance at another contract. After my meeting, I checked in with Elliot, and he was about to pick Micah up from daycare. I raced home and waited for them. When Elliot walked through the door with Micah, he was clearly happy to see me. He couldn’t stop beaming and laughing, and he was just so happy to be with me. I can assure you, the feeling was mutual!

Micah did just fine . . . he enjoyed playing with the blue stuffed elephant while he sat in a bouncy seat, and he took his bottle. They said he was happy and easy the whole time – he even got a wonderful report card to prove it!

All in all, he did really well, but I was a bit frustrated with his caretaker, Aneta. When we arrived, Micah was asleep. We decided to place his car seat in the crib so we did not wake him up (I told her he desperately needed to nap for an hour or two). So, after we placed him in the crib . . . she woke him up to put in his paci “so he would sleep better.” HELLO – how does WAKING A BABY UP help them sleep better? I did my best to bite my frustration back, and I went to the front office. I came back to check on Micah before I left, and he was quietly playing. DH picked him up at 4:30, and he was napping – but he had JUST fallen asleep. According to Aneta, Micah took 5 ounces. I told her he probably shouldn’t need more than 4 – I have a feeling she force-fed him the last ounce instead of taking the bottle away when he was just comfort-sucking. I’ll have to have a discussion with her about not over-feeding him. Needless to say, his belly hurt a bit when we brought him home, and he had a meltdown around 7:30 because he had not gotten enough sleep during the day. We’ll have to work that out.

I had to run out after nursing Micah to attend a viewing – the father of our family friend, Pat, died last week. I made it back a little after 8, and Micah was still in melt-down mode. Elliot managed to get him to sleep for a few minutes, but I needed to nurse him again before he finally drifted off. I guess my little guy just needed a bit more mommy time. He was SOOO over-tired today.

Update. . . . 1:02 am. It has been a rough night. Micah was hysterical at bed time, then woke up again at 8:45 and needed to nurse. He went back to sleep, but Elliot and I have needed to run upstairs MANY times to reinsert the paci. I was getting ready to pump when the fussing started again. I reinserted the paci, but he didn’t seem satisfied, so I picked him up and decided to nurse him again. While I was nursing him, he was making this horrible rattling noise – he was extremely congested. We used that blue nasal squeegey to clear things out (he did NOT like that) and I finished nursing him. He is currently asleep, on his side, but it is a very restless sleep. I think we’re in for a long night and an early morning! Maybe daycare did really throw him off more than we thought.

Happy New Year!

January 2, 2009 by Jessica

I can’t believe it is 2009! Micah got to meet his great grandmother on New Year’s Day to celebrate her birthday and spend some time with her. Elliot and I made a birthday cake for her (truth be told, Elliot baked the cake and made the icing, and I decorated the cake). Seeing my Grammy with Micah was really wonderful – she kept saying how beautiful he was. I’m not sure if she knew who he was all the time, but she seemed happy to have him there. For someone with dementia, you just have to focus on the moments.

I’m finally feeling better (I’m a bit worried about Micah, though – he keeps sneezing!) and we’ve gotten Micah to sleep for 5 hour stretches 3 nights in a row so far! We tried the secure sleeper, and that really does seem to help a lot. He has really been fairly awake today – we played a bit, and we chatted, too. Of course, now I’m wondering what exactly to DO with him when he is awake. I sing, but that has to hurt his ears!! I’m not sure what toys he should play with or how best to stimulate him. We tried the playmat again today – he got upset after about 5 minutes on it. I gave him a funky rattle/plastic loopy thing (I think it is called a winkle?) and he seemed to like that . . . for a few minutes. He got cranky the last time he was awake, so I put him in the swing and he zonked back out again. We’ve played music and I’ve chatted with him and read him a book. I guess I’m just not sure if I’m doing this “right.” I’ve never been so unsure of so many things in my life!

Adventures in Traveling

November 30, 2008 by Jessica

Friday morning, Elliot & I woke up to the contractors showing up 1 hour early. That NEVER happens! We were then trying to finish getting ready to leave with the contractors doing work. I told Elliot he should put his sandwich together, but, of course, he was too busy being lazy. We then were surprised by our insurance agent – we forgot we made an appointment with her. In the midst of all this chaos, we were trying to finish decorating a cake for my niece, Stephanie, since we were planning to head up to NJ for her bat mitzvah! We decided to keep it simple – a basic 9×13 inch cake with an edible image of her facebook page on top. Elliot wanted to help, so he started icing the cake – mistake #1. He had the cake upside down on the tray, and he got crumbs all over the icing :(. I was so frustrated – and didn’t have enough icing to fix the problem. We tried flipping the cake back, but it broke in half because of the weight of the icing. So, I was then sitting there trying to repair the cake. Then, I went downstairs to print out the image . . . and, naturally, the printer was out of ink! Elliot offered to help refill the cartridges – let’s just say, that was a disaster, too. Elliot took FOREVER – he spent most of the time looking for gloves. Something about Ellilot when we are on a very short time frame makes him slow down . . . he moves like molasses when I need him to hurry! After all of that, Elliot didn’t fill all the cartridges that needed to be refilled, so the printout looked terrible – the colors were all off. Even worse, it took him so long that the icing crusted, so I couldn’t get the icing sheet to attach. I was SOOOO frustrated!

We then had to take Nugget (I couldn’t leave her here with the contractors) up to my friend’s house so she could watch her for 1 hour while we had our ultrasound. The plan was to grab the dog then go straight to my brother’s house to drop her there overnight. As we were driving to the ultrasound, Elliot realized he forgot his phone. We were so late, we didn’t have a choice but to keep going. This little factoid becomes important later on . . . .

We arrived for our ultrasound about 10 minutes late – only to find that the doctor we were supposed to see had left a few minutes before – sick! The office was all backed up – we waited over 1 hour to get our ultrasound. We had a different tech again – and we have learned that some under-measure, and some over-measure. We had one with a generous hand – who informed me my cervix had grown larger than it had been even at 28 weeks (3.5 cm). That didn’t seem right to me, but it gave us our “green” light to go on our trip. We then met with the doctor, she re-measured some of the images, and said she thought the cervix was closer to 2.4 (which made more sense). Regardless, there were no signs of imminent labor, so we decided to head out for the weekend.

We stopped and picked up dog food, dropped my dog off with my brother and SIL, then went on our way. We arrived in decent time, and had dinner with the family. There was a bit of family drama (as usual) and then we had cake with everyone back at the hotel. My stomach was bothering me, and I was up pretty early not feeling well. When I finally got Elliot awake, he complained he wasn’t feeling well, either. I assumed he was playing the “me, too” card, and I was totally unsympathetic. We went to breakfast, and I could barely eat anything. I had 2 bites of oatmeal, 1 piece of scrambled egg, 3 frosted mini wheats, and a bite of the home fries.

We got back to the room, and I called my mom, who informed me she had been up all night puking. At that point, I realized that it was pretty likely we all caught a stomach bug from my niece (who was getting over a stomach bug on Thanksgiving). I no sooner hung up from my mother when I began puking. I spent the next 6 hours throwing up, with bouts of diarrhea thrown in the mix. It was NOT a fun day. The whole time, Elliot complained he wasn’t feeling well, and mostly slept. I realized I was having a lot of cramps and contractions, so we called the midwife. She suggested I drink more fluids and increase my meds, so I did. At 3:00, I decided to join my SIL, Jodi, for a manicure/pedicure (actually, I asked her to tell me where I should go to get one, and she offered to make the arrangements for me and keep me company). I was really feeling horrible – my stomach was out of control, and I realized I was having contractions every 4 minutes (and they were pretty intense).

Now, here is where things get interesting. Since Elliot forgot his phone at home, I gave him my cell phone to use while I was getting my nails done. I had my niece, Stephanie, send Elliot a text to tell him to get back to the hotel asap. We returned to the hotel, and I went to our room. I was waiting over 1 hour, and the contractions were getting worse, and Elliot still wasn’t back. I started to panic about having the baby there. I had no cell phone, and couldn’t call anyone, and he had the car with all of my hypnobirthing stuff in it, so I couldn’t even listen to my recordings and relax. I decided to call Jodi in the hotel, and ask her to hunt down her husband, Steven, and Elliot and get them back ASAP. When I called their room, Stephanie was FREAKING out about her bat mitzvah. I couldn’t get her to talk to me, and she threw the phone on the ground. I started getting mildly hysterical while trying (unsuccessfully) to calm her down. I finally spoke to Jodi (I had to insist) and she managed to get in touch with Elliot who was on his way back.

When he walked through the door, I LOST it. I told him what was going on with me, and at that point, he went to the bathroom and started throwing up. So, he wasn’t in any position to help me for a bit. I called the midwife, who told us I should go to the hospital to get IV fluids. She really felt that my contractions were induced by dehydration, not actual labor, but said that if we couldn’t get them to stop, it could cause my water to break. I knew I’d never leave the hospital if I went, so DH & I decided not to do that. When I was in the hospital at 28 weeks, I was able to avoid the IV by drinking 40 ozs of water in 30 minutes, so we decided to give that a try. I was taking my terbutaline every 3 hours, and I GUZZLED the water down. We got the contractions to slow a bit and lessen in intensity. We made the decision to get dressed, go to the bat mitzvah, and if everything held steady, we decided to head home right after the service and skip the party. We didn’t tell everyone exactly what was going on, but at 8:20, we were on the road back home.

Well, by this point, Elliot’s stomach issues were as bad as mine. AND, I was pumped full of water. Let’s just say we hit EVERY rest stop and hotel at every exit the entire way home – it made for a long trip. Elliot puked a few more times, we were both dealing with diarrhea, I had to pee every 5 minutes from all the water, and neither one of us had really eaten a meal since Friday night. It was NOT a pleasant ride home, but at least the traffic wasn’t terrible.

When we got home, we called the midwife, and she said I should keep taking the meds, see what happens, and call her in the morning. The contractions are still 4 minutes apart, but much less intense. I have not been able to get a hold of her today, so I’m not sure what is next. I don’t
know that it is worth it to keep taking the terbutaline for another 24 hours – I feel at this point it is more of a hindrance than a help since we can’t make the contractions stop. Regardless, I only have a few more doses left, then I stop and we have another appointment tomorrow morning. We’ll see if this baby decides to make an appearance this week!

So, after all of that, we did make it to the service, we dealt with a horrible stomach flu, and we didn’t get to stay and enjoy the food or the party. But, we did make it home safely, with only 2 of us in the car! I’m just so relieved to be back home again.

Whirlwind week

September 8, 2008 by Jessica

The past week has been quite crazy. The baby is kicking and moving around, and my belly grows larger by the minute. I discovered this the hard way . . . apparently, it IS possible to catch your belly and bruise it when trying to stand after sitting at a dining room table. Who knew? I need to practice backing away from the table BEFORE standing now.

I’m officially 24 weeks pregnant today! I can’t believe how fast time is flying. We have an appointment on Wednesday to see the midwife again, and my gestational diabetes test is coming up soon. Elliot has been crazy all week responding to the hurricane and tropical storm Hanna, and we are still fighting with the contractors over getting the house finished. Once again, we have another leak in the house! I’m not convinced we’ll be able to move before this baby arrives, but supposedly, they will have everything but the vanities and tile backsplash done this week – I’ll believe it when I see it!

Elliot and I are actually making progress on getting things in order – I actually would not be humiliated today if someone came into my house, which may be true for the first time in quite a few months. We have appointments set up with our organizers for the next few weeks to help us with packing and moving . . . assuming we are ever able to move.

This weekend we celebrated my niece Paige’s 2nd birthday. Here is the Dora cake I made for her:

Elliot was a big help – he did the baking, and I did the decorating. We make quite a team!

Today, however, I am worried about my dog, Nugget. She is lethargic and not eating . . . and she ALWAYS eats. We’ll be heading to the vet this afternoon, but I hope she is okay.