Flowers and Cake Design

I completed my second cake decorating class this month. This class focused on royal icing flowers and designing a balanced cake. We learned to pipe roses, apple blossoms, primroses, violets, lilies and daffodils. We also learned the classic basketweave technique. We just made a million flowers each week. I planned ahead and made all of my flowers in a similar color pallet so that I could use them on my final cake. 

I decided this cake was for me, so it was going to be uber-chocolatey. I baked a two 6 inch chocolate cakes from a box, then filled and iced them with canned chocolate frosting and chocolate chips. Then I made a batch of chocolate buttercream icing to pipe the basketweave with because the canned frosting is way too soft. This is the most amazing recipe for chocolate frosting ever. It is extremely fudgey and tastes best at room temperature. It was so hard not to just sit there in class and pipe the icing directly into my mouth instead of onto the cake. After piping the sides, I mounded up a pile of frosting in the middle and attached my flowers. I added some little green leaves and itty bitty squiggly green lines. My piping bag burst before I could finish the squiggles, so there are only a few. The chocolate is a little too dark for the flowers, but it tasted amazing. 

8 months

Little Miss Lily is now 8 months old. She's 13lbs 3oz and 25.5" long. Her little face and legs are getting chubby! She thinks solid food is the greatest thing in the world, particularly if she can feed it to herself. She has been babbling up a storm. It's so fun to hear her pretty little voice and not just screaming. She's also working really hard at crawling. She can scoot around like crazy, and can now stay up on her hands and knees to rock back and forth a few times. It won't be long until she's crawling all over the place. I'm not particularly looking forward to this because it means it will be that much harder to keep her safe. She's sleeping great at night with us, usually we get one 4-6 hour stretch and then 2 hour chunks until morning. Since she's in bed with us it's not a big deal at all and we're all getting the sleep we need. 


She's also having lots of fun banging and shaking things. I'm really excited for our music class that will start at the end of April. Originally we were going to try Musikgarten out in Oak Park, but I did some research and found something closer. The Old Town School of Folk Music offers a baby music class called Wiggleworms at the Hyde Park Art Center that is just down the block from us. If you don't know about the Old Town School, you should. They are super awesome and my father-in-law has been involved with them for a long time. Check them out here. They have several locations for classes, so they're not just for us city folk. 


And finally, Lily still really loves books. Particularly if there are things to feel and grab at. 

Ready for a break

From Spring Break, that is. How is it that after 2 weeks of having Joe home to help take care of Lily and hang out I'm exhausted? Maybe we just had too much fun. We went to museums, celebrated birthdays, visited friends, made cakes, cooked delicious meals together, had many dance parties, day-tripped, shopped, wandered the city, and did some massive spring cleaning. 


It was really nice to be able to take long showers and have Joe prepare lunches, but I'm looking forward to getting back to our usual, less hectic routine. More naps, less driving. More walking, less eating. More music, less TV. More snuggling, less adventuring. 


Amazingly, we got through most of my spring break to do list. The only things I still want to get done are organizing Joe's and my closets and finally hanging things on the walls. The closets I can do slowly while hanging out with Lily, and the hanging can easily be done on a weekend day. 


So we had a productive and fun break. I know Joe feels more relaxed, so he's ready for his Spring Term. And I'm ready for our break from Spring Break. 

Happy Birthday Grandpa Joe!

Last Monday was Joe's dad's birthday. So I of course had to make him a cake. He really likes chocolate and fishing, so I thought I'd make him a cake with a chocolate fish on it. Ta da!

This cake was super fun to make. First I baked two 8" round chocolate cakes, filled them with vanilla icing and semi-sweet chocolate chips, and iced the whole thing in vanilla frosting. Then I mixed together some piping gel and blue dye to make a goopey, watery type substance to look like a river. I bought some candy rocks at the grocery store to go all around the bottom, like a river bed, and in a couple spots on top to represent a river bank. I piped a few tufts of river grass, wrote "Happy Birthday Grandpa" on it, and attached my fish. (You are supposed to write on your cake before you do any other decorations so that you have enough room and you don't have to worry about messing anything up. That is good advice that I will remember next time so that I don't end up with blue piping gel all over my arm and the words are straight.)

So about this fish.... it is a rainbow trout made out of melted chocolate that I mixed candy colors into. First you print out whatever image you want to make and cover it with wax paper (or if you are artistically inclined you could free hand it).Using dark chocolate in a piping bag trace the general outline and any details you want. I used a toothpick to pull the chocolate in lines for the fins. Then you fill in the background with whatever colors you want, in this case muted rainbow stripes. After letting it harden completely, peel it off the wax paper and turn it over. Then you add whatever other detail to the front that you need. I added the dark speckles, the pectoral fin, and the eye to give it a little dimension. This was way easier to do than I expected, and wicked fun, so expect to see a lot of chocolate painting/molding on future cakes. 

This was my first attempt at a fun cake. And it was satisfying in a different way than my previous cakes. This cake was all about making it look like something, but it certainly also tasted good. It was fun to try to figure out what to use to make things look realistic, but not too real. If you google rainbow trout cake you get some disturbing things. I'll never be one to make a cake look like something that is not a cake, but I will be more than happy to put anything on a cake. 

Week 12

Ugh. Ended up at 173. This is not good. My only explanation is that it was Spring Break and Joe was home every day. That means I was eating a lot more food for breakfast and lunch than I usually do, plus an extra delicious dinner, and don't forget the cake. I might need to find a new hobby...

But this is the week. I can feel it. The sun is shining more regularly, I won't be distracted by Joe, and my pants are getting close to not fitting. Spring training here I come!

M: 1 mile walk + birthday food
T: 3 hour scavenger hunt at MSI
W: road trip to Galena
Th: not much
F: 1 mile walk
S: 3.5 mile walk
S: 1 hr walk

Week 11

So... I ended up at 171. Fail. I did pretty ok all week, and then we ordered a deep dish pizza last night. Cheese is always my downfall. I went for a good run this week, though, and felt great! My core is way stronger from baby yoga so it doesn't feel like my intestines are sloshing around. AND I fit into my pre-pregnancy sports bras again!!! This is a huge deal. It is so uncomfortable to run with big boobs, I can't even explain it. It feels so good to be back in the "normal" range for me. The problem now is when I work out I get REALLY hungry and feel like I have somehow "deserved" to eat something ridiculous. And it's Spring Break so I'm eating a lot more fook than usual, and cooking more ridiculous things. Also, because Joe's home we're doing all sorts of fun things and exercising always gets pushed back. One more week of just trying to hold steady, and then I'll be ready to really kick it in gear. I'm encouraged by the couple of times I ran, and if I can keep my appetite satisfied with something other than cheese, I should be ok.

M: 15 min warm up, 4x1/2 mile repeats with 1/4 mile walk in between, 15 min cool down. All half miles were between 5 and 5:15.
T: 1hr + walk
W: afternoon at the zoo
Th: 1 hr stroll
F: 2 hour walk
S: not much
S: 1/2 hr stroll

Baby Carriers

Lily does not do well just hanging out on the floor for very long. So we basically carry her most of the day. She does fine for a little bit if she can still see you, and she'll be happy for quite a while if you get down on the ground and play with her. She loves to scoot and crawl on her face and roll over again and again if you're right there. This constant need to be held can make it a bit difficult to get things done. So we've experimented with a number of carriers, 6 to be precise. I have a bit of an obsession. I love getting new gear, be it hiking, climbing, running, yoga, etc. And now I can add baby gear to that list. 


The first carrier I bought was the Mei Tai I got at a used baby stuff store in Tucson. I posted about it when I first got it. It's certainly the prettiest of the bunch. This one was great when Lily was first born. It was one of the only ways she would sleep. I like this one a lot because it can be used as front or back carrier and is fairly small. It's good for doing chores around the house, but doesn't have enough support for longer periods of time. It's also great for going out because it looks so nice and not like a big strappy/claspy/velcro-y baby tank.


Then we got a hotsling. Lily absolutely loved that for about 4 months. She would snuggle in like a little pea in a pod and be happy for long periods of time. She's too big to snuggle into it like she used to, but she's almost big enough to use it as a side carrier on my hip. I just know she's going to love it again in a couple of months. This one is great to throw in a bag because it's tiny and can easily be put on anywhere and over anything that I'm wearing. 


A friend sent me a Moby wrap/ring sling combo. This was a hit in Tucson because the light fabric was very breathable, and it covers up so much I could just wear it over a little tank top. Lily liked to snuggle down into this and even nurse in it. It has the softest, stretchiest fabric of all. I have friends who say it will be great again as she gets a little bigger. 


Another friend gave be a Baby Bjorn. Lily wasn't big enough to use it until December, but now she's pretty comfy in it. It's a great front carrier for longer trips to museums and public transportation. It's a little cumbersome so it's not great to bring "just in case". 


Then I got a super cheap Infantino carrier at Target that could be a front or back carrier. I couldn't get the Mei Tai on my back by myself, and it's hard to sweep and carry things with Lily in the Bjorn, so this seemed like a good option. The back carrier is great. It's a snap to put on, I know she's secure, and it feels so much better to have her on my back. This is my go-to-carrier for chores. We tried it at the Morton Arboretum the other day (see action shot below). Joe carried her and it worked ok. She can't see a whole lot because she's so low down and it doesn't fit Joe very well. 

Today we got a frame backpack at REI. I'm sooooo excited to use it this week when we go to Galena. This thing is humongous, but it's so comfortable and Lily thinks it's awesome. Joe and I love to hike, and this is absolutely perfect. It has a sun and rain cover, and a small pack underneath her seat so you don't have to carry a separate diaper bag. I love it so much. It'll be perfect for the Zoo, the Aquarium, the Arboretum, walking to the beach, so many things. I don't have a picture yet, but we will by the end of the week. 


After buying the frame pack, I felt the need to justify our plethora of carriers. I literally use one of them every day. And it's almost never the same one two days in a row. And I haven't gone more than two weeks without using each one at least once. I feel like each one has very specific strengths and makes it the perfect thing for certain tasks. But I agree with Joe, we probably have enough now. If you're in the Chicagoland area and are considering buying a baby carrier, let me know and we probably have one you can try for a couple of days before you decide to invest in it.