Cat-in-the-Hat Jell-o

As I was mixing up some delicious muffins this morning, my mind was wandering. I realized that I never posted about the food at Wendy's Cat-in-the-Hat birthday party. You know, back in September. *ahem*

Anyway, we had the predictable green eggs (deviled eggs with green food coloring) and ham (ham & cheese sliders), plus chips, veggies, dip and fruit. But my favorite part of the party food was the Cat-in-the-Hat Jell-o.
It's not a great picture, but can you see it? There in the blue dish? They are little Cat-in-the-Hat hats made from layered Jell-o! I wish I had a better picture, but I was so busy at the party that I didn't have time to take good pictures of the food. I found a recipe online and tweaked it to make these. I didn't have a small round cookie cutter, so I used a (clean) medicine cup to cut the shapes, then put them in white mini-muffin cups. They were adorable, and perfect for a Cat-in-the-Hat-themed party!

Cat-in-the-Hat Jell-o:
4 pkg. 3 oz cherry Jell-o
4 packets of Knox unflavored gelatin
1 14oz can sweetened condensed milk

1. Mix 1 pkg cherry Jell-o with 1/2 packet of unflavored gelatin. Add 1 cup boiling water. Stir to dissolve. Cool to room temp and pour into 9 x 13 glass pan. Refrigerate for 15 minutes.

2. Mix the can of sweetened condensed milk with 1 cup boiling water. In a small bowl, sprinkle 2 packets unflavored gelatin over 1/2 cup cold water. Let stand a few minutes and then add 1/2 cup boiling water to dissolve gelatin; add to milk mixture and stir to combine. Cool to room temp and pour 1 cup of milk mixture over first layer of jello. Refrigerate for 15 minutes.

3. Repeat layers - cherry, the rest of the milk mixture, cherry. Refrigerate for 15 minutes between each layer, and refrigerate 4 hours before cutting.

June 13th

It's my birthday.

I'm 33.

I'm okay with that.

My husband and kids made me an awesome cake.

Have a great day!

The Birthday: 2

The Birthday Boy!

The Cake

Blowing Out the Candle

Hooray for being TWO!

Now We Are Four

Brand New


One


Two


Three


FOUR!

My Darling, Sweet, Complicated Wendy,

You are four years old.

People will tell you all of your life that time flies. You won't really know the truth of that until you are a Mommy yourself someday. Weren't we just swaddling you? And putting tiny dresses and tights on you? And laughing at how your uncoordinated newborn eyes could look at the ceiling and floor at the same time?

On one hand, it feels like you have always been a part of our family. But on the other hand...yes, time DOES fly. You have changed from a tiny, fragile newborn to a healthy, happy baby, to a strong, opinionated toddler, to a little girl.

A wonderful little girl.
A beautiful little girl.
A feisty little girl.
A dramatic little girl.
A sweet little girl.
MY little girl.

I love you, my baby. Let's enjoy what FOUR brings us!

Message from David

Hi, everybody!! Come closer...I have something to tell you!

Today is my BIRTHDAY!!
I'm ONE YEAR OLD!!
Isn't that great?

My Mama says she can't believe it,
but I think it's pretty exciting!
I'm getting so big!

I took my first steps last night
after church. I could have done it
sooner, but I like to keep my parents
guessing - and carrying me!

Thanks for your birthday wishes!
Mama says that we'll have cake on Saturday,
but I don't know what cake is...I hope I like it!

Birthday for the Chicken

Dear Wendy,

Today you are three years old! Three years ago, we got to meet you - our tiny, red, wrinkly, beautiful girl. We knew right away that you were going to change our lives. Just like the song I've sung to you since that day:

God made Wendy, God made Wendy
Yes, He did! Yes, He did!
She is something special
She is something special
Yes, she is! Yes, she is!

You are creative and imaginative and silly. You are full of athleticism and energy, and always ready for an adventure. You are spirited, stubborn, strong, and sensitive. You are funny - you make jokes now, and will giggle until you can't breathe - which makes Mommy, Daddy, and David all laugh, too.


You are beautiful, caring, and kind (usually). You take good care of your brother, making sure that Mommy and Daddy know whenever he is upset. You are such a good big sister! You are my big helper. You love to wash dishes, put clothes in the washer, feed David, and put away groceries. You are very smart, and can remember things that I never thought you would even notice.
You love princesses, kitties, Shrek, soccer, Daisy (your puppy), and cookies. You really enjoy reading books, and your current favorites include "The Gruffalo," "Ten Apples Up On Top," "Snug House, Bug House," and "My Lucky Day." Mommy and Daddy really enjoy hearing you "read" your books out loud, and you like to read to Daisy and David.

I hope you always know, deep down, that Mommy and Daddy love you, and more importantly, that God loves you. To quote Veggie Tales, "God made you special, and He loves you very much!" We are so thankful and blessed to have you in our lives!

Happy Birthday, my Chicken Potato. My Chicken McChicken. My Booger McChicken. My favorite girl.

Love,
Mommy

Wendy's Birthday

In all the excitement of our BIG NEWS, I forgot to post about Wendy's birthday! Shame on me!

This weekend we traveled to Ohio for a family reunion. This meant that Wendy got to celebrate her birthday with one entire side of the family, some of whom she had never met before. She was a little overwhelmed at first, but was soon running around asking people to help her with her choo-choo. (The train set was a gift from her Great-Uncle Joe and Great-Aunt Debbie Lee.)

I baked & decorated her cakes on Saturday morning, and we celebrated on Saturday evening. The Elmo cake turned out pretty good, I think, especially for doing it freehand. The other cake was just a spare, since we had so many people to serve. Wendy also got her first taste of her Great-Grandma's homemade vanilla ice cream, which is just about the best dessert on the planet.




Wendy also scored big with presents - people like to buy toys for little girls! We're going to have to weed out some of the toys in her basket, or they'll start to take over the house.

(This is where I was going to insert the video of the whole family singing "Happy Birthday" to Wendy. However, I can't find the book for the camcorder, and I can't find the cord anyway, so nevermind. Use your imagination.)

All in all it was a great birthday, and we appreciated being able to spend it with family. My little bitty baby is growing up!

My Little Sidekick

A strange thing has happened at our house this year. Someone took our baby and replaced her with a little girl. I'm not sure how this happened, and sometimes I wish I had our baby back...but only sometimes.

Today is Wendy's second birthday. To me, this milestone means that she has graduated from babyhood. She's now a full-fledged toddler - and an adorable one, at that.

Wendy as a toddler is adventurous and fun-loving. She is very physically active, preferring to run when she could walk, and to jump when she could stand still. As for sitting still, like in church - HA! You'll very seldom see this girl just sitting still. (And if you do catch her sitting still, she's most likely working on a diaper.)

She loves balls and blocks and books. She loves swings and slides. She still loves her Blankie, even though the Binkie has been put away for seven months now. She likes to eat green beans, tortillas, cantaloupe, applesauce, chicken nuggets, strawberry mini-wheats, and yogurt. She no longer drinks formula or even whole milk; she's on skim milk now, and doing great.

And her vocabulary...oh, her vocabulary! Just a few short months ago I was concerned because she only had about ten words and wouldn't even say "Mama." Now, I'd estimate her vocabulary is around 200 words (expanding all the time) including 3- and 4-word sentences...and the beloved "Mamam."

Wendy, you've been Momma's sidekick since Day 1, but you're truly turning into my little helper as well. You're so big, and you can do so many things! I'm being surprised all the time by the things you've figured out and the things that fascinate you. I love reading you books, I love tickle-wrestling with you, and I love running around the backyard with you. I love seeing things for the first time, through your eyes - I especially enjoyed our first trip to the zoo!

You're my Chicken Potato, my Girlie, my Kroger buddy, my Wendy Mouse, and my Cutie Patootie. You're my favorite girl, the best Wendy on the planet. I love you more than you'll ever know.

I look forward to this next year, as we grow and learn more together - what fun we'll have!



Happy birthday, sweetheart. Now let's go eat some cake!!

Pondering

I'm 30 today. I feel like I should have something profound to say, some contemplative reflections to share, or some goals & new habits to list.

I don't have any of that.

I think 30 is the final nail in the coffin of adulthood. (I don't mean to be maudlin, it's just the phrase that came to me.) First there was getting married, then graduating college, then there was becoming "Dr. Jeni," then there was having a child, and now I'm 30. That's it. I'm a grown-up.

For the most part, I'm okay with that. I'm nowhere near as together as I'd like to be, and as I always imagined I'd be as an adult. But I've noticed that there are very few people who really have it all together. We all have our weak points, be it a messy house, a fighting spirit, a lack of self-control, or an addiction to soap operas.

30 is not how I imagined it. For one thing, I always pictured myself as having at least 2 children by the time I turned 30. For whatever reason, our difficulty conceiving this time around has changed that vision, and I'm struggling to allow God to bless us in His own time.

I also didn't imagine that we'd still be in so much debt - but it's a result of the choices we've made. Spending $120,000 for vet school to then become a SAHM isn't exactly a recipe for financial abundance. But we're making it, we're doing fine, and we have everything we need.

While 30 may be adulthood, it's YOUNG adulthood, and I've got a lot to do, things to work on, a toddler to train, and live to live. I look forward to the future, toward seeing my girlie grow, toward growing closer to James, and toward striving to become the woman God wants me to be.

Y'all have a great day!!

On Leaving Wendy

On Friday, something momentous happened. It was uncomfortable and a little bit painful. It could be looked at as a rite of passage, I suppose.

We left Wendy with Grandma & Grandpa overnight.

She's 20 months old, and she had never spent a night away from her Mommy. What's more to the point, I had never spent a night without her in 20 months. Or longer, if you count the nights she kept me awake when I was pregnant.

When we planned to do this a few weeks ago, I was hopeful that it would go well, and I wouldn't be too worried or anxious, and that this would open the door for other sleepovers for Wendy, so that James and I could have some couple-time. I was looking forward to a night without the baby monitor, and the idea of sleeping until I woke up was definitely appealing.

As the night approached, I grew a bit more nervous about it, and was planning and re-planning how it would work out, and figuring out all the stuff I needed to bring to Grandma & Grandpa's house for the evening. It didn't matter that Wendy's spent about 1/4 of her life at Grandma & Grandpa's house, and that she had her own crib there that she slept in quite often. It was the simple fact that my baby was spending the night twenty minutes away from me. What if she needed me? What if she got scared? What if she needed her milk, and no one fixed her milk just right?

Even as I type that, I know it sounds ridiculous. My parents are perfectly capable, and in fact raised two children to adulthood without incident. (Except for the time my mom lost us both in the same day in a foreign country - a story for another day.) They'd be able to change her diaper, feed her, soothe her, and even get her a cup of milk. Wendy has spent tons of time with them, so she's perfectly comfortable in their care and at their house.

James and I brought Wendy over around dinnertime, so that we could all eat together. After a bit of playing and a bath, we tucked her into her crib there as we do many nights when we stay past her bedtime. She had her Bear and her Kitty and her Blankie, so we said a bedtime prayer and kissed her goodnight & shut the door. As soon as I knew she was asleep, we left.

I was doing fine, really. Until we got in the car and James asked, "Do you have everything you need?" My eyes flew to the rearview mirror and the reflection of the empty carseat. "NO!!" I wailed, "Just start the car and let's go!" I calmed down within a few minutes, but it was not easy.

And I did enjoy my baby-free night & morning. I managed to wait until 8 a.m. to call and check on her, figuring that she would surely be up by then, as she rarely sleeps past 7 a.m. these days. Grandpa answered the phone and said that he had figured I'd be calling to check on her. I asked how she slept, and if she woke up OK, and he said, "She was fine. She woke up saying, 'Mama, Mama, Mama...' "

That gave me the sniffles again, but all was well. We survived our night apart. I was SO glad to see her when we got there on Saturday - and she'll be spending the night at Grandma & Grandpa's fairly often in the future.

Birthday Party

Wendy had her first birthday party on Saturday at Grandma and Grandpa's house. It's so nice to live close to family for a change! In addition to GM & GP, we also had my Aunt Diana, my brother Jeff and his wife Lisa, and our nephew Avery. Avery is 5 and one of Wendy's favorite people.

Before the "festivities" really began, Wendy got to spend some quality time with Grandpa. He doesn't get to see her as much now that he's finally working, so he definitely takes advantage of the time he has. They were sitting together in the rocker playing with the Glowworm and reading books and generally cuddling - it was sweet. As you can see from the picture, Wendy loves her Grandpa!


This is a picture of Wendy's cake. It was a cherry-chip cake with cherry icing. In retrospect, I should have made a chocolate cake so that it would've showed up better in the messy pictures, but Wendy liked this one just fine!

Her first taste of icing...she wasn't really sure if it was going to be good, but then the sugar hit her system. :-)


As you can see, she liked her cake! The pink icing blends in, but if you look closely you can see that she's got it all over her face, on her shirt, and all over her hands. She's stickier than she looks! (Seeing her like this, her Aunt Lisa said, "She looks like Boo from Monsters, Inc.!")

After her post-cake bath, she sat with Grandma for awhile, with her Blankie and her Binky. She had to take a nap before opening presents - eating your first cake is exhausting!

All in all, I think her little birthday party was a big success. I think if you need a bath and a nap in the middle of the party, it's probably a good party. :-)

My Pumpkin is One!

My Wendy...

It's hard to believe that exactly one year ago, we were checking in to the L & D ward at Vanderbilt, anxiously awaiting the C-section that would bring us you. It had been a long nine months, and we were so happy to finally be meeting you.

When I heard your first cry, I was overwhelmed...you were really here, and really mad about it! :-) The nurses wrapped you up and put that tiny hat on your head and brought you over to me to kiss you. What a snuggly little bundle you were.

And now, today...you can walk, you can giggle, you can (and will) eat just about anything, and you bring so much joy to our lives. As I type, you're walking around wearing just a diaper, with a Binky in your mouth, a small bottle of powder in one hand, and dragging the Blankie with the other hand...you're so cute! What did we ever do before we had a Wendy?

Happy birthday, sweet pumpkin. Mommy loves you very much!