I’ve officially moved! Everything from 2011-2013 that was written here, on my dear tumblr site, has walked on over to Blogspot.
Thank you, tumblr, for being the home to my written words the past two years.
You can now find me here: Raising Some Noise.
I hope you stop by to visit.
The change also brings with it the ability to have my posts delivered to your email. That way, you don’t miss anything!
Okay, I’m not, but the blog is.
I’ve got all of 2011 over there, and I’m working on scootching over 2012 now.
2013 is live and in action.
There’s a new name, though.
But, it’s still me.
Just…. Raising Some Noise.
I’ve covered decorations.
And, cake.
So, that leaves only the party, itself. The who was here, and what we did.
We chit-chatted with guests, and then served pizza, and chit-chatted some more. A little slideshow of pictures from Asher’s first year flipped through on the television and iPad.
Then, Asher said it was time to open presents!
So, we did.
Even Leo helped.
He got a what!?
Then, what else is there to do but play with the toys?
(Okay, the lower right corner was the next morning…and that’s the toys he had out before Christmas, Christmas presents, and birthday presents. December is a good month for the kid.)
Even the guests couldn’t help themselves.
There’s this Polish tradition, where on the child’s first birthday, you set out a rosary, coin, and shot glass and whichever they pick up first reflects certain attributes.
The rosary was first, which means spiritual, religious, awareness oriented.
That’s really the only one that counts, but I think it’s funny what happened next. He grabs the coin slyly with his left hand…
Then, slips it into the shot glass!
I’m not sure what that means, other than he might be good at “quarters” when he gets into college and of the drinking age.
We sang a happy birthday tune.
Then, guests started to depart, and like most parties, it was over before we knew it.
I had to get a picture of Asher’s Godmother, Shea, who had been evading the camera all day.
We hope everyone had a good time. We sure did. And, although Asher won’t remember his first birthday, I will remember all the love and generosity bestowed on him this day.
2012 brought with it a lot of changes for our family. A rough first month of parenting, three deaths, a frustrating move, a financial crisis, a sudden job change… It seemed like every time we turned around, something else was punching us in the face.
It makes me want to throw my middle finger up and scream a holy (can flipping the bird be holy?) EFF YOU 2012!
I’ve decided it’s time to count blessings and “let go of that which does not serve me”. <—-I’m getting all yogi up in here.
1) We have a healthy little boy.
2) OK, he’s getting over a cold, and blowing snot like some sort of something that blows a lot of mucus, but he hasn’t run a fever once! We’ve managed to stay out of the ER while we wait for COBRA to kick in. For all of this, I am truly thankful. And, also, knocking on wood.
3) Sean and I, although we have worked through more than our fair share of trials this year, we did it together. Holding hands. Taking it one step at a time. To me, this is priceless.
4) It snowed on our son’s very first Christmas Day! It doesn’t get cooler than that.
5) We would be nowhere without the love and support of our parents.
6) I have a sister-in-law and friends that I can call plain ol’ sisters. They may not be by blood. But, they are definitely by heart.
7) We may have lost 2, but we still have 3 loving dogs….that are staring at my hummus and black bean chips right now.
8) Hummus and Black Bean Chips
9) My business did really well, again, in 2012, despite the fact that I was closed for 2 months for maternity leave, 2 months due to the move, and discontinuing the scrabble tile coasters for fear of Hasbro suing me.
10) My child makes me laugh every single day. As can my husband. Especially when I’m upset, and they try really hard to help me turn it around.
11) There is food on my table, a roof over my head, clothes on my back, heat in the winter, and air conditioning in the summer.
12) Even though we may not talk all the time like crazy, I have a sister I know I can count on whenever I pick up the phone. She is always there, and there are days I would be absolutely lost without her. Lisa, I don’t know if you even know this, but it’s true. I love you dearly.
13) We have family that may not be near in proximity, but constantly prays for us.
14) Clean water, because not everyone in the world has it. Even though they should.
15) Nap times. Not mine, but Asher’s. It’s when I have time to do things like work out, take a shower, get my work done, and silly things like write these blog posts.
I could go on and on and on.
So, 2013, let’s rock. We have a lot of blessings, and a lot to be thankful.
I wanted Asher’s birthday cake to be low in sugar, and not full of fat. The last thing I need is the kid that’s never had a good dose of refined sugar, to be a basket-case the rest of the day, on some sort of sugar high.
Plus, as a family, we’re trying to eat a more whole-food diet, so this kind of just fits the scene. Don’t get me wrong - I’m all about everything in moderation, but Asher doesn’t really know any different. And, honestly, I’d like to keep it that way for as long as possible.
For lack of a better word, I read a lot of “mom blogs”. They help keep me sane. Some of the women are stay at home moms, and some are work at home moms, like me.
It’s amazing how many moms are concerned about this sort of thing, because on pretty much any blog I read, they talk about de-sugarfying the first birthday cake.
(Perhaps that’s because the blogs I read tend to be the eco-friendly, sustainable, and whole healthy living types.)
So, all these ladies talk about the great successes (and some failures) with the first birthday cake trials. I kept looking for a link to the cake recipe….and there never was one!
Come on girls, help me out!
I ended up doing my own search. Banana cake? Carrot cake without the nuts? Hmmm… Cream cheese icing? I don’t know about that… Pumpkin spice cake? I ended up scouring the internet, and then landed on a vanilla cake recipe.
(As I forge through the journey of motherhood, I constantly wonder how my mom ever raised me without the power of the internet. She must be a genius with superpowers.)
We flirted with the idea of making a separate cake for the guests, so that they could get their sugar on. In the end, we decided it was easier to just make the one kind of cake.
To help our party guests sugar it up, if they so chose, we made a do-it-yourself cake bar. It included sprinkles, homemade royal icing, homemade chocolate buttercream, homemade vanilla buttercream, and assorted fruit and berries.
By the way, chocolate buttercream on raspberries….to. die. for. See what I mean? Everything in moderation.
Everyone seemed to enjoy it, and were able to be creative, too. My mom made a little strawberry short cake. It was totally adorable!
Asher ate his piece of cake, and loved it.
Here’s a shot of Leo’s Dad sneaking him a piece.
All in all, I think the cake bar was a success!
The best part was….easy cleanup of Asher. I just had to brush a few crumbs off his butt. :)
The recipe follows. I kept it in two 8”x8” pans, because I didn’t know what would happen if I made a double recipe in a 13”x9” pan. I also used sugar, since it was only a quarter of a cup.
Vanilla Cake
(adapted from a recipe for diabetic cooking)
1 cup all-purpose unbleached flour
1/2 cup pastry flour
1/4 cup sugar (diabetics use Diabetisweet measure for measure to replace sugar)
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/8 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup plain yogurt
1/2 cup buttermilk
2 tablespoons canola oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 egg whites
Preheat oven to 350ºF. Spray an 8” X 8” baking pan with low-fat spray. Sift the dry ingredients and set aside.
Whisk together wet ingredients in a mixing bowl. Add the dry to the wet and mix until most of the lumps are gone. Pour mix into the pan and bake at 350ºF for 30-35 minutes or until knife or toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
You may add all ingredients together if using a stand mixer - just be sure to mix up the dry for about 30 seconds to ensure the soda and powder are spread out.
There are also many more ideas at Wholesome Baby Food.
I don’t think first birthday parties are for the kids as much as they are for us parents. Because, the kids don’t know what a year is. They can’t even count to one. They don’t know what presents are, and in fact, think the ribbons, tissue paper, bags, and boxes are more the gifts than the gifts themselves.
However, it’s a huge thing to us parents because, well, we kept the kid alive for a year! And, although, it was at times exhausting and challenging…we did it! It’s a victory to us.
We were going to do something big. We wanted to, because Asher is a big deal to us. Most parents probably feel this way about their kids. Because kids are big deals to us. So, making a big deal out of the first birthday comes almost naturally.
The planning began with home-made chalkboard signs everywhere, home-made garland and banners….blah blah blah. We could BBQ instead of order out. We could do this, and that…
I started stressing out.
That’s when I decided not to do any of it. It’s when I decided my son was more important, and stressing out over a party was silly.
Keep in mind Asher’s birthday is 2 days, and his party 4 days, after Christmas.
Asher and I went to Wal-mart the day after Christmas, and I canned homemade for a stress-less party celebration. We bought plates and napkins and a banner to match. Asher even picked out his big “1” candle.
We also bought a bunch of Christmas wrapping paper, tags, and tissue paper at half off for next year! Woohoo!
But, I digress…
The next day, Dad went to Target and picked up a helium tank, balloons, and ribbon and some stripy party hats.
It’s amazing what 30 balloons in a house will do to party up a joint.
We left it at that.
Simple.
These were taken at night because I didn’t even think to take pictures of all the balloons during the day!
Even the Christmas Reindeer was festivized.
And, of course, Asher’s high chair.
Steve called Santa, and was able to stay an extra few days so he could celebrate the boy’s first birthday.
The balloons were a big hit.
Such simple things = the greatest happiness.
Even into the night…
Dude. What’d you do?
And, although the balloons weren’t skyward in the morning, they were still fun!
Because this face, happy, is all that matters. And, it really doesn’t take much to light it up.
It’s incredibly embarrassing how long it just took me to spell twelfth. I was determined to do it without looking it up on Google. Determined.
Twelveth Twelev Tweleth
It has to start with “Twelve…” somehow, right?
Then, the red line of “hey you spelled it wrong” went away and I thought, “Is that right?”
So I Googled it.
No, it wasn’t right. Spell check even gave up on me.
There is an “f” in there?
With all the excitement around Asher’s first birthday, I completely forgot about my “adventure” post of month twelve! (That’s a lot easier to spell.)
To start off on the right foot, here is our Christmas Card.
And, if you missed the visit with Santa post, it turned out really well.
Asher learned how to use hand tools to create a guitar.
A boy and his dog, plotting their escape.
We watched a staple of Christmas television: A Charlie Brown Christmas.
Ol’ St. Nick visited on Saint Nicholas Day. Steve kept watch over Asher’s stocking.
There’s stuff in here?
Ducks!!
We visited Mom’s former place of employment, and helped Paul re-decorate Aunt Shea’s cube. Asher also cried when Mom was asked if she was interested in seasonal work.
There’s always so much dog hair.
The best pianists have crazy bed head.
Asher plays great horror flick music.
We learned about Baby Jesus, and His upcoming birthday.
Where is Jesus?
This is his “I just did something I wasn’t supposed to, so look at how cute I am” face.
Catching up on Barney Beagle.
Ma, you ready?
Where’s the baby?
Uuuugggghhhh…
What is clementine?
The only thing better than bear ears…
Windy day.
Dusting.
Wheeeeeeeeeeeee!!
We watch the birdees every morning.
Bath-fro.
How cute is he in his little outfit?
Snow! It made him cry, so we observed the snow from the warmth of the inside from here.
Pull yo’ pants up, son!
Happiest of first birthdays!!
I decided to make Asher’s birthday cake. I wanted it to be low sugar, because he’s never had sugar-laden things before. And, only use egg-whites since we haven’t forged into full blown eggs yet, either. So, this cake meets those requirements and adds in a little yogurt and buttermilk. It’s really not half bad.
I fully realize I’m one of *those* mom’s now.
“I’ve never been given such a large piece of food before.”
“I’m going to have the whole thing, okay?”
MMmmm!
“Why have I never had this before??”
“I’m so drunk right now.”
The 13th month will be in the year 2013. Since 13 is my lucky number, that’s pretty darn cool.
Asher’s first year of wonderment and delight.
It started twelve months ago. I was all expecting, couldn’t wait, and when the heck will he get here? I was not, at all, patient about the whole thing.
Then, the day came, and after a week and a half of contractions, and twelve hours of hospital laboring, and when I just couldn’t push and do this a.ny.more…..the best scream I’ve ever heard in my life echoed in the room. In that millisecond, my body went from ultimate chaos to extreme relaxation, and Sean and I instantly turned into a mess of tears.
The whole labor thing? It’s nothing like A Baby Story, or any sitcom, and I remember the pain.
My son was here, and I was officially a Mom. (SON and MOM feel weird to say, even a year later.)
My mom calls me her baby. I get that now. He will always be mine. My first. (Possibly, my only – more on that in a second.) He is the little boy who changed my entire world forever.
Here I am, twelve months later. All the unknowns that swirled around my head are now knowns, and I feel silly for stressing out over which swing to get him.
I now have this cool kid with awesome hair, who is content to walk back and forth in the backyard for half an hour with a leaf in each hand, dances anytime a good beat or rhythm hit the airwaves, chases the dogs to the bedroom while laughing hysterically, tries to stuff 15 cereal puffs in his face at one time, curls up in my lap when it’s time for a nap, and sings to himself in the backseat of the car.
He is the best, most wonderful thing, I’ve done in my whole entire life.
Boy: n. noise with dirt on it.
And I couldn’t love him more.
I had a strange experience when I first saw Asher. It’s hard to describe, other than by saying, I knew his soul, but I didn’t know his face.
Even though I clung to my child from the start, my love has definitely developed over time.
Where he is:
Measurements: 23.2 pounds and 31” long
Favorite foods: Sweet Potato, Grapes, Cheerios, Gerber Graduates Cereal Puffs, and homemade Apple Sauce
Words: Maaammaaa, Dada, Christmas Tree, Hey!, Hi, Daaaaddy, What’s this?
Teeth: I’m going to count it as 6. The two, next to the front two teeth, are breaking through, probably even as I type this. I say, “You’re a big boy with SIX TEETH!!” and he laughs.
Things he can do: Rollover, crawl, pull up, squat, walk, walk really fast to get away, pincer grasp pretty much anything, talk and babble
Where I am:
I hear women say that they just love breastfeeding. I really didn’t, except for the 30-50 minutes it allowed me to sit down on the couch and chill every few hours. People told me I would be able to do other things while breastfeeding. Ya……no. That never happened either. After eight months, the transition to formula was guilt-ridden, but best for my family, and it has made life so much easier!
I’m now super-excited to move onto whole organic milk. Not sure how much less expensive it’ll be, but no more mixing formula!
Breastfeeding was also not some magical weight loss cure for me. My weight has gone down – heck, I lost 20+ pounds in a day! – but I am still around 8 pounds over my pre-pregnancy weight, and 13 (I really hate typing that number out) over what I call my “happy weight”.
My stomach sticks out more than I like, even though I realize my muscles were stretched to the absolute extreme. I constantly push it in, while looking at myself in the mirror.
My rib cage, and I’m talking my bones, are bigger than they used to be – i.n.c.h.e.s. bigger – and my hips are wider than they were previously. I kind of feel like my body moved all my bones to make way for baby, but didn’t put them all back together correctly. I’ve given most of my old clothes away to charity.
I’ve tried watching my food intake, more protein, less carbs, less wine (ack!), I did the insane TurboFire workouts, and have now switched to yoga and running again because they’ve always been my standby. Absolutely no budging on the scale. None. I’m very frustrated and a touch bitter about it.
I don’t think anything is going to change my stomach, except maybe 1,000 crunches a day or some stellar ab workout, and let’s just be honest….that’s not going to happen.
I can run longer than I could pre-pregnancy, which is an odd occurrence. Maybe all those TurboFire workouts did something….or maybe it’s the constant chasing after Asher.
You’d think that’d help me lose weight, right? Running after him…Cleaning up after him…Picking him up all the time…squatting to get something while holding 23 pounds of baby….just plain carrying him around?
It should melt fat like buttah in a pan!
Toldja I’m bitter.
I know Asher’s first birthday is his entry into toddlerhood, and I’m super excited about it. I love seeing him do new things and become whoever he is supposed to become.
The first year went all too quickly, for my taste. I fear year two will be just the same, as I chase after this youngster every day. I really wish I cherished those newborn days a little bit more than I did.
But, damn. I was tired, the walking dead, exhausted back then.
Where we are:
Around Asher’s six month mark, Sean and I decided we weren’t going to talk about whether or not we were going to have Baby Fields 2.0, until Asher reached one year old. Now that we’re here, it seems that everyone asks me the same question. So, to answer all of you…
I don’t know.
I don’t know if I’m mentally and physically ready yet. Plus, I’ve lost most of my sanity pulling boogers out of noses, telling the kid not to eat leaves and Kleenex or stick his finger in the dog’s butt.
I don’t know if Sean is ready, either. I don’t even know if Asher is. So, all I can say is, we’ll see.
In the meantime, and since I tend to isolate myself a whole lot….I want to start getting the kiddo (and me) involved in a mom’s group, or just get out there more. The isolation is really because we’re super busy all the time – and running a business from home keeps me, you guessed it, home. Which, is nice in the aspect of raising a child, but not so nice in seeing the world beyond our lot line. So, my goal is to get out more. See friends. Family. Make new friends. All that jazz.
Motherhood is definitely a journey. I know the years ahead will bring with it so many new questions and unknowns. But, we’ll figure it out together, just as we have this year.
As a family.
Girl meets boy. Girl marries boy. Girl and boy create blended family with many dogs. Girl vacuums a lot. Girl and boy become one and make little boy.
