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Cupcake Monster

Celebrating Sasha's Birthday Week with damaged-by-Eliana cupcakes

Cupcakes and Birthday Cakes

I took Sasha to Publix to pick out her birthday cake. We're just having a family party at the house so I let her take control. She chose this cake:

A perfect cake for her mother or her great-grandmother (I told her you would love it, Nanny.) but not something you would expect from a 6-almost-7-year-old. What you would expect is why she chose the cake. It comes with a pair of sunglasses.

While I was helping her choose, Eliana decided to take a look at the cupcakes. She knocked a 6-pack off the shelf and they all went askew. So, you know, I felt bad and I HAD to buy the pack. I told Sasha that we would eat them to celebrate her Birthday Week.

Sasha's Photo Shoot

I hate those silly, posed school pictures and remember I swore I wasn't going to go to any photo studios anymore because of my new camera. I just realized that the picture we have of Sasha is from the beginning of Kindergarten. Think it's time for a new one? So, this was our photoshoot. It was very hard to choose, but I picked the 2nd one.

Interesting Adoption Article

Raising Katie
What adopting a white girl taught a black family about race in the Obama era.

Worrying...again!

I am already worried about Eliana and her desire to make fireworks and now we have to worry about Sasha's desire for free t-shirts. While we were at the Central FL Fair, a local band was playing and throwing out t-shirts. Sasha was so excited and we watched her run right up into the middle of the crowd and jump of down screaming for a t-shirt. She looked right at home. Unfortunately, she didn't win a t-shirt but luckily for all of us, she was not injured!

Carnival!

Who doesn't love a good carnival? I'm fascinated by carnie workers. I could sit and watch them for hours. The best part of carnivals is that they play the SAME music as they played when we were younger! I love it!

We know for sure that Sasha is a daredevil and will ride any ride she is allowed to. In fact, she almost made her Daddy sick dragging him from crazy, wild ride to ride.

This is Sasha on that crazy ride that goes around so fast, you stick to the wall. As it went around and around and around, we all watched from the ground. She was the smallest person on the ride and the only one that got off and got RIGHT BACK ON!



Here were are waiting safely...smartly! on the ground.

I fortunately got to share the tame rides with Eliana but I can tell that she was very bored on some of them. So, we're thinking in a few years, Eliana and Sasha can ride together while Mommy and Daddy stay nausea-free on the ground.


Eliana was able to ride this bungee ride which she loved. As I was watching her, 4 people came up to me to tell me how gorgeous she was. I'm telling you, just $1 for every time someone says that and we'd be rolling in it!

Steal it!

No really, steal it!!!

At some point during Eliana's early days, I was told about a few great websites. BabySteals was one of them. They post new deals on fantastic Baby Products every day at 11:00 AM EST. Sometimes, they sell out faster than you can find your credit card and sometimes, you get lucky.

Let me tell you...I want to have another baby because of this site again and again and again. Well, not JUST because of this site, but you get my drift! Just a few weeks ago, I had 2 CASHMERE baby blankets (only $18 each, by the way) in my cart but I resisted and much to my dismay, when I went back just an hour later to really purchase them (I decided I would keep them...just in case...or use them as gifts), they were ALL GONE.

Check it out for yourself!

DIVA!!!!!!!

Eliana screams BLOODY MURDER when I cut her nails. In fact, the other day, I was waiting for the police to show up at our door because I had just cut her nails with all the windows open. Anyone from anywhere in our neighborhood had to have heard her wails. Fortunately, I wasn't hauled off to jail and on our way to my manicure appointment today, I asked her if she wanted to get her nails painted since she "let" me cut them the other night. She said, "Yes and Michele will cut my nails." OK!! I took her up on that offer. She let Michele cut her nails with absolutely NO SCREAMING, not even a peep.

So it seems as though our 2 year-old daughter will now be getting a weekly mani/pedi!Thank goodness the girl who does my nails is a friend of mine and we go to her house. LOL

Ham

After a 2-hour (Eliana had to walk), $200 trip to Target (Sasha's birthday is in 2 weeks), for some reason Eliana wanted me to take her picture with the car.

Should I worry?

Eliana came inside yesterday and said, "I know, Mommy! I know! I make something." Mommy said, "Ohhhh you will? What will you make?" Eliana put her finger to her chin (yes, she really does that when she's thinking) and said, "Ummmmmmm. Fireworks!"

Welcome Spring

At a retention pond in our neighborhood. Sooooo sweet! We were in the car on the way home. Sasha and I just sat in the car and watched it eat for a while. Unfortunately, Eliana was asleep but luckily, I carry my little camera with me everywhere!

They're working on it.

Eliana and Juliana are working on their relationship. One of these days, they'll be the best of friends....or partners in crime, but either way, aren't they so cute?

Oprah

I like Oprah, most of the time. I'm watching an episode that I taped from last week about Motherhood. Oprah always says that she thinks Motherhood is the hardest job of all. Wait, I think I LOVE Oprah.

These women are on this show sharing their "dirty little secrets". This mom was talking about how she was in the middle of a 7-hour drive to visit her parents. Her kids were asleep in the backseat but she really had to pee. She didn't want to stop and wake up the kids, so, she grabbed a diaper out of the diaper bag and peed in that. I think that's GENIUS!!! GENIUS!!!

Genius Moms aside, these other moms claim that they act like everything is perfect in front of their friends. What? Really? I never do. Am I wrong? If I'm pissed about Matt or the girls, I share it with anyone who will listen. Why would I hide it? Ladies if you feel like you need to tell your friends that everything is perfect, those are NOT your friends!

These moms are beating themselves up over "mistakes" that they think they have made. They have too high expectations about being a Mom. Seriously, get over it. You did what you could in the moment. What are you going to do to change it now? Today, on the plane, I gave Eliana a push-pop and she got upset about having to wear a seatbelt on the plane, and she put the lollipop in her hair. I knew a push-pop would lead to disaster in her hands but I also knew it would keep her happy. You should have heard her scream when I took the lollipop, covered in her hair. She actually woke up the baby in front of us. But that baby in front of us still had baby food all over his face from when his mom fed him before the plane took off, about an hour before. Now, she's got it right. She doesn't take herself seriously.

As a parent, you can't take yourself seriously. The only person you have to prove yourself to is...yourself!

They Never Change

The girls and I had a fun visit to PA this weekend and Sasha and I had lunch with her cousins at MY old Elementary School. I can't tell you how excited I was to go back to my teeny tiny school. It still has only 2 classrooms per grade. No Portables, either! There are even 2 teachers left from when I was there but neither were my teachers.

Sasha and I buzzed in and got our visitor's badges. While we were waiting for Kris, Sasha was looking at all the bulletin boards in the hallway. There were lots of pictures and names around and she kept looking for mine, "Is your name on this one, Mommy. Where's your picture? Is your picture on that one?"

Kristopher's class came by and he showed us where to sit. While he and Sasha dug into their Burger King bags, I took it all in. I saw the corner where I had to stand one time because my friend was talking when it was quiet time and I told her to be quiet BUT I GOT IN TROUBLE! The same damn chin-up bars are still hanging onto the "multi-purpose room" walls. Do you remember the Presidential Fitness Tests? My arms hurt just looking at them. The cafeteria still uses silverware! The stage looked really small and I think the tables were the same. LOL.

You know what? I really miss teaching. I really miss those little kids. The second I sat down with Kristopher's 1st grade class, they started on me with the questions, "Who are you?" Ahhhhh an opening... I told them that I was Kris' Aunt from Florida and Sasha was his cousin which led to:
My step-mom is from Florida.
My Aunt lives in Florida.
My Grandma lives in Florida.
My Grandfather had a heart-attack but he survived.
My Great-Grandfather had a heart-attack but he didn't survive.
My Uncle has Stage 4 Cancer and it's terminal.
My Daddy has hairy feet and legs. He has hairy arms, too.
My Daddy snores like this. (I'll tell you what, if his Dad really sounded like he showed us, I'm glad I don't have to sleep in his house.)
My Daddy got these earrings for me for my birthday. (She took them out to show me and then asked me to put them back in.)
I have 2 autistic brothers and they were in the newspaper.
My mom was in the newspaper.
I was on the radio.
I was on the radio for my birthday.
My great-grandmother put me on the radio for my birthday.
We were going to get a billboard to say "Happy Birthday" to my Uncle but it was too much money.
And it went on and on and on and on and for sure, I can't remember every single comment but I enjoyed every second.

And then, we met Jakob's class for lunch. In typical Jakob fashion, he jumped out of line to give both Sasha and I a hug. We sat down and as his friends surrounded us, all I could think is that 4th graders are weird. They really are. A sweet little boy sat beside me, just a tiny little thing. He maybe ate 3 grapes from his whole lunch. I said, "You need to eat some more food, you didn't eat anything". I should have known this answer would follow, "Oh, I take a pill that makes me not wanna eat. It makes me behave, but not eat."

Well they're no friends of mine.

Sasha is very tired which means she is bouncing off the walls. No, she really is bouncing off the sofas and the floor and the coffee table and...well, you get my drift.

Eliana is very tired which means she is very grouchy. You can't look at her. You can't speak to her. You can't do anything that she doesn't want you to do. Just don't.

There was a tiny bit of music in their pre-bedtime show and in mid-bounce, Sasha started dancing. This, of course made Eliana whine, "Noooooooo I doooooon't liiiiiiike it!!!!!"

So I just had a teaching moment. I was able to teach Sasha the moral of Safety Dance. Who knew you could teach your kid a lesson from 80's music?
We can dance if we want to.
We can leave your friends behind.
Cause' your friends don't dance,
and if they don't dance, well they're
no friends of mine.

And, really, if I wanted to continue the lessons learned from Safety Dance, I could teach her how to spell 'Safety'.