Dekker’s Birthday

One year ago…

The timeline of this gorgeous day is messy. I look back now and of course I wish I had kept better track of when things were happening. I will likely be more on the ball with whichever babies follow in the years to come.  However, the forgetfulness properly documents that Dekker was my first child and I was new. What a perfect day.

I woke up around 7:00 am on Saturday August 20th, 2011 with some suspicious “leaking.” Brady and I immediately got excited. The baby was coming!!! However, I was having no signs of labor whatsoever. So I called my mom and she agreed that I should likely go get checked, just to be safe. I then called the health line and they agreed. “Go to the hospital” they said, as they had said so many times while I was pregnant. So while we packed our last minute stuff, I felt a little silly. I wasn’t laboring, which according to every chart and video, I was supposed to be doing. I knew they would just send us home and say to wait for more to start happening. But I had also heard horror stories about people whose water broke and were sent home, and they got terrible infections, as did their babies. I felt kind of torn, and I didn’t even know what was going to happen yet! Classic over thinker. We left the house shortly after 8:00 am. I think.

We got the to hospital around 9:00. I had quite the belly when I was pregnant and as soon as I walked into the emergency room the lady at the desk said “Wow, are you having a baby?!” I had to say that I didn’t know! So I told her what had happened and she said that I needed to be wheeled up, and that was just the policy with any kind of leaking. So I gave them all my information and Brady wheeled me to the elevators and to our first room. I was put in a room and was there for quite some time before anyone even came to see us. We took funny pictures of me in the blue gown and stalled and laughed and had a fun time.

I still wasn’t even admitted, they needed to make sure it was my water that had broken, and not that I had accidentally just peed myself or something awkward like that. After a while, Dr. Boechler (a resident) and Lindsay (an intern) came to check me out. They asked if Lindsay could do my exams for practice and I said yes. That was the worst mistake I made that day, hahaha! Those exams are quite painful and she was nooo kind of gentle! She used large tools and moved roughly and quick. I cried, and she got very impatient with me. This didn’t seem to make her feel any more sympathetic. It was tough. She would uncover me so I was completely vulnerable, and then she would leave to go do something and leave me completely uncovered. I thank the Lord for Dr. Boechler who would come cover me. She examined me two or three times, and after all of that, she was unsure about how far dilated I might be. So Dr. Boechler had to double check for her. Miscellaneous fact: Men’s fingers are larger than women’s fingers, no matter how dainty. However, he was apologetic and went nice and slow. I was only 1.5 to 2 cm dilated, which is very early. They swabbed me and didn’t find any amniotic fluid, which was discouraging. So after the exams, the doctors left and Brady and I just hung around and talked while we waited, as no one had really told us what happened next. We were laughing about something (of course I don’t remember what it was) and suddenly – I peed. It was crazy! I burst out laughing out of embarrassment and every time I would let another laugh out I would pee more! It was horrifying! Lindsay came back into our room and told us they weren’t going to admit me since I wasn’t in labor at all. I mentioned to her that “something gross happened.” She seemed surprised when she lifted the sheet up. She went to get Dr. Boechler and he swabbed the fluid, smiled, and showed me the swab that had turned dark blue, showing amniotic fluid! It was so exciting! From there on, I was known as “the woman who laughed so hard she broke her water.”

So I was finally admitted, moved to another room (about three doors down that same hallway) and I awaited labor. Brady and I tried to watch some Big Bang Theory while nurses came in and out and put monitors on my belly, took monitors off, checked my blood pressure, etc. I met the on-call doctor and she checked me out to see what progress I was making. None so far. Another miscellaneous fact: Wearing gel nails while giving a cervical exam is awful and should be outlawed. Who do people think they are anyway? Either way, I wasn’t progressing yet.  At this point it was likely noon-ish. (Again, didn’t think to check the time.) I was informed that if I wasn’t in active labor by the time visiting hours were over, Brady would have to leave. I would have none of that so I agreed to get things rolling. I was given Cervadil, which is a tampon-like medication that is used for “light induction” that was supposed to “ripen” my cervix. Yet another miscellaneous fact: Light induction isn’t real. Serious induction however, is a real thing. Within 15 minutes (I think) I was contracting all over the place. This being my first labor, I don’t have anything to compare it to, but after not even an hour of labor, I had heard several nurses saying amongst themselves things like “Her labor is terrible, poor girl! She’s getting maaaybe 15 seconds between contractions!” So it wasn’t in my head, which was a relief. I labored that way for about an hour or two before I needed to be checked again. I was truly relieved when Dr. Boechler came into my room. This man followed my whole labor and delivery, and was easily the most caring health care professional I worked with. The world needs more Dr. Boechlers. He came in to check me, and said he’d try to wait until my current contraction was over. Unfortunately, such tiny breaks in between didn’t leave room for that so I was examined anyway with many apologies from him. He said I wasn’t dilating which was pretty discouraging consider how hard my labor was. It was suggested that I take a little pain medication and get in the jetted tub. I’m never one to turn down a bath so I took the Gravol/Morphine magic mix and got in the warm tub.

I sat across the short way in the tub. Brady sat in front of me with his legs in the water. Every time I had a contraction I would lean forward and Brady would brace his fists on my lower back and put some pressure there. It worked wonders. A few times I heard a nurse come in but I don’t know what they wanted. From about that point on, Brady did most of my communicating. I genuinely don’t know if I ever opened my eyes while I was in the tub. And all of a sudden I had been in there for about 2.5 hours. I decided to get out at that point because I knew labor was getting harder and the longer I hung out in the tub, the worse it was going to be when I got out. I got out and limped my way back to my room where I had a “Brady, I don’t know what to do! It hurts! *Insert profanity here!!* Ouch!” contraction. I only had one of those panicky ones, and then I moved back to breathing and being in my own weird labor zone. Needless to say, I asked for an epidural. From the moment I asked for one to the moment I had one that was in full working order was about three hours. A looong wait, but it passed relatively quickly. It went from asking for one, to Dr. Boechler coming to check me (I was at 5 cm, woohoo!) to waiting and waiting, to being wheeled up a floor. I should actually add in there that trying to get into that wheelchair was pretty tough. Just standing up was tough! We tried to get me in between contractions but as I’ve said, there wasn’t time. I was plunked in a chair and rushed up pretty quick. Not because I was about to deliver, but because it hurt.

I waited in the room where I would later deliver my son. The anesthesiologist came in and gave me the pro/con list of epidurals. It is very low risk now, which is nice to know for the person who is agreeing to have a needle put in their spine. I was so blessed to have a good anesthesiologist who didn’t give me a migraine, I was so blessed that they put a freezing balm on my back first so I didn’t feel the needle, and I was even more blessed to have the longest break between contractions I had through the entire labor when he put in my epidural. When another contraction was coming on, I was holding as still as possible, and when I finally buckled and asked if I could move, he said yes! I was done, and it was easy. I was assured that these things should be in full working order in 15 minutes. Miscellaneous fact number four: That is not a guarantee. I was in a lot of pain still a good half hour later, so they gave me a button to push every 15 minutes to give myself another shot of the medicine until it was working. Three shots later I was in good shape, completely comfortable. Such a relief!

I decided it was naptime and Brady realized he had barely eaten all day so he went to the Subway across the street and I rested for the first time all day, pain free. Dr. Boechler woke me up maybe 15-20 minutes later to check my progress. I don’t really know how long I actually slept but Brady wasn’t back from Subway yet. The doctor warned me that some people, even with the epidural, found the cervical checks uncomfortable. He then checked me (totally painlessly) and seemed a little surprised when he said I was completely dilated and effaced! I remember commenting after he checked me without me crying about how he probably liked me a lot better now. He looked me right in the eye and said “I like you just the same.” Our only problem was that baby hadn’t moved down at all. He gave a call to the new doctor on call to see what she wanted us to do. She said to let my epidural wear off and for me to sit up straight, and maybe that would coax baby down. So I spent the next…while…back in pain. I didn’t have the pressure that I was supposed to be feeling, but I felt pain again! I mentioned it to the nurse who was in our room with us and she seemed to think this method of moving baby down wasn’t working.  She mentioned it to Dr. Boechler and he called Dr. Cameron back to see if she still wanted me in this position. At this point, Dr. Cameron had not met me and didn’t know much about our case. So I believe that she was doing what she thought was best when she said to keep going on no epidural. When Dr. Boechler came and told us that, I felt a little deflated but I new that the big moment would come soon anyway. After he left the nurse seemed a little flustered, and made a quiet comment about how, for some reason, she hadn’t unhooked my button yet, and if I chose to push it another one or two times, that would be fine. Yay! So I drugged myself up a little extra and felt comfortable again. Our nurse brought me a pineapple Popsicle as I hadn’t eaten since that morning and we waited.

She was a lovely nurse. When I had yet more fluid suddenly and dramatically make its way out of me, she just laughed and laughed and cleaned me all up. Part of the general line up of events is that the mother needs her bladder to be empty before she delivers. The nurse let me go try to pee but having no feeling in my lower half made it near impossible so we had a good laugh over that too, and she just chucked a catheter in there and took care of it for me. It was weird to hear myself pee and not feel it.

A while later Dr Boechler came back in just o see how we were all doing. I guess Dr. Cameron wasn’t in the hospital yet and he was just waiting like the rest of us. He brought another round of Popsicles and we had yet another laugh when we discovered that I STILL had a bag of water that hadn’t broken! So he broke my water. Again.

Finally, Dr. Cameron came in, and brought Lindsay with her. She said straight out that I likely wasn’t ready to deliver, as my baby still hadn’t come down, but she did offer me that I could do a trial push and just see how things went. I pushed, using all my strength, and all my knowledge from all the baby shows I’ve watched in my life, and baby moved down! We were ready to push!

I began pushing at 11:20 pm. I know that for a fact. I pushed for a total of one hour and fifteen minutes. My room consisted of very few people. There was me (I was the star) and there was Brady and the nice nurse who gave me extra epidural. They helped me hold my legs up while I pushed. Then there were Dr. Cameron, Dr. Boechler, and Lindsay. They alternated approximately every three contractions being in the baby-catching position. Each one had a different approach. Dr. Cameron was professional, more quiet, and then between contractions she would talk with everyone about weekend plans, etc. Lindsay had the scary “GET MAD! GET MAD!” approach of getting the baby out using the “anger” that I didn’t actually have. I was feeling wonderful, I wasn’t in pain, and I was delivering my first child. Dr. Boechler would call my baby by name while I pushed, tell me how wonderful I was doing, and anytime I looked up, he was watching me. Even between contractions. I definitely felt like a person with him, not bed number whatever.

At certain points during pushing, I was offered to be able to feel how far out the baby’s head was. It was surreal to know he was already half a head out! Turns out that half a head out isn’t quite enough and his little melon got stuck. However, because of my awesome epidural, I wasn’t in pain. Therefore I wasn’t panicking, my blood pressure was good, and so was the baby’s, which is the most important thing. I was having a great time, loving the experience, and then all of a sudden, he was on my chest. He had such a large gurgly cry for such a little boy. His color was beautiful; he barely had any blood on him or anything. He had lots of hair on his head, and a little calcium deposit thing in his right eyebrow. He had wide hands with long fingers. He had a square shaped birthmark on his right thigh.  He had a very long tongue that he stuck out at me right away, just in case I was curious . He was huge. He was perfect.

 Dekker Thomas Born entered the world on Sunday, August 21st, 2011 at 12:35 am. He weighed 10 lbs 10 oz and was 22” long. He was a huge hit that weekend in Royal University Hospital, no pun intended. Well, maybe a little bit intended.

6 of 6: Attitude

Dekker is the most content little boy I’ve ever met.

Of course he can be hyper and hilarious, but I feel like his spirit is content. He’s just not in a rush to really do anything too big or exciting. Some people may think I’m making excuses but I’m not. He didn’t roll early because he didn’t want to. He was always strong enough, I know that 100% confidently. Same with sitting. Same with crawling. Same with pulling himself up. He can do all those things now, but he’s just not too concerned.

The other day at my parents house, he was playing with  few toys on the floor in the living room. Deks has just started crawling in the last week or two and doesn’t care for it much, and we’re trying to encourage it. Not force him at all, but just get him more comfortable with it. So my mom had a toy she was trying to convince him to come for. A microphone that makes echo sounds when you talk into it. He loves that toy. So he looked at her, making sound into his microphone, thought about it, and opted for a toy closer to him. He’s just very happy where he is. I love this aspect of his personality.

Another side of him is very cuddly. Not always, but if he’s very tired and past the fussy stage, or if someone new is around and he wants to figure them out from a distance first, or if he’s feeling sick. And lots of other times, those are just the obvious ones. But one of the times that amazes me is how cuddly he can be when he’s in trouble. This has not happened very much, as he’s still so little. One lesson we’re working very hard to teach Dekker is to be gentle with faces. He will slap and scratch at eyes especially, yank off glasses, and the like. He does this when he’s excited, but the the most when he’s tired. However, sometimes he just does it out of the blue, and will persist and keep trying to “get” your eyes. We’ve corrected him consistently for a good while now and you can tell he knows he’s not supposed to hit faces at all. Once in a while, you see the temptation, and then he puts his hand down. Which is great! But honestly, nine times out of ten he still goes for the eyes. So the other day, we corrected him and he cried and cried, and when we picked him back up he scratched at Brady’s eyes like crazy. We didn’t really know what to do, so we put him on the floor across the room from us and from his toys. Well it just hit the fan, didn’t it. He wailed like crazy!  And while he cried, he slow-crawled back to us, crawled half into my lap, and lay his lead down, bawling. It was very surprising to me. You would think in that scenario you’d just be pissed and not want to be near each other. I thought kids got mad at their parents when they were punished! But he just wanted to be soft and warm and safe again. Sigh. So the difficult discipline journey begins. Don’t want to talk about that too much today. Happy post!

A side of Dekker’s personality that makes me nervous and excited is the part that is sooo obviously growing up! He chats like crazy! When he is in a comfortable environment, he just talks and talks! Yesterday I saw him pick up a book and read it! Out loud!  He’s growing up surprisingly fast, it blows my mind!

I’m not sure what pictures to attach today, of my son being cuddly, squishy, mature, and chatty. But he is those things, and a lot more! I’ll just go with the ones that most obviously says “content” to me. I may have used it before.

Now don’t forget, with this being the last post of the series, that means TOMORROW DEKKER TURNS ONE! One looooong birth story coming up! I can’t believe that was a year ago already! Yikes! Oh boy, not getting into that today!

5 of 6: The Details

Maybe some people will think this is a silly thing to post about, but not me. I love Dekker’s details. There are unlimited beautiful things about him, but I’m going to go on the physical side of things today. One. Beautiful. Part. At. A. Time.

If you look closely, you can see a little dot in Dekker’s right eyebrow. We thought it was one of those little white bumps that every baby is born with, just a little bigger, but this one never went away. Perhaps a little calcium deposit?

Skin. Soft skin. So touchable and smooth.

His tongue. He stuck it out at me the first time we met. How could I not love it? He is just a very animated character and this only adds to his entertainment.

Dekker’s smile lights up the world. Ask anyone. Everywhere we go, he makes friends. He is so engaging and his smile is so charming, its hard to ignore. Why would anyone want to?!

Chubby legs. Now these  are LEGS! Squishy and nummy and perfect for nibbling! Not to mention the toes attached at the bottom!

Not too many babies I’ve met have eyes this huge, and always this open 🙂 Kind of shocking when you’re not used to it, and a little nerve wracking when he glazes over. I love them.

BELLY! A definite favorite. Obviously, these are not in any specific order. The belly, similar to the chubby legs, is perfect for munching on.

You have to look close for this one. Dekker’s birthmark. On his upper right leg is a perfectly square brown spot. I looooove it! Its so different, completely its own. Countless nurses tried to wipe that spot off but its staying put! I’m sure he’ll love my interest in it when he’s a teenager…

Besides obviously loving his expression in this picture (and the drool all over everything), I love his weirdo hair. He has a cowlick on either side of his forehead. I have no idea what we’re going to do with his hair. Ever. Hopefully it will curl and we can just let that happen. But as of right now, his hair usually looks pretty strange.

Lastly, I love my sons sweetness. It is undeniable. I could go on forever about all the things I love about him inside and out, but there are the fun ones.

Dekker boy, you are a hottie. I love you.

4 of 6: Nicknames

Growing up, I was peppered with nicknames from my loving siblings. I hated it at the time (if I’m being honest) and would only agree to “like” a nickname if a worse one came up in conversation. I was branded as “Hoagie” at about age 8, and it still lingers. I love it now. But it took time.

I’ve been interested to see what Dekker picks up for nicknames along the way. Before he was even born, we knew we’d call him Deks sometimes. Not “Dex,” because we knew people would then think his name was Dexter. And we were right! So, “Deks” was ne of the first. The very first nickname was obviously just “Baby,” since having a newborn is so surreal, it was amazing enough that we even had one! Much less one with a name! Then, like a lot of babies I know, he was branded “Baby Dekker,” or “Dekker Baby.” That morphed into “Dekker Boy,” which I use often, as does my mom.

His first nickname that wasn’t a give-in was Pooky. I remember how naturally it crossed my lips, and how I immediately wanted to take it back. I really don’t think any boy wants to be called Pooky. But I couldn’t help it. I was going to write it in his baby book s his first ever nickname, but this boy is sooo easy to nickname that Pooky was soon passed over for Baba. Not a Ukrainian Grandmother (right?) but Like, a chubby, tough boy. Its only gotten worse from there. I calls him Goosey, (originally derived from Silly Goose I think) Bubbles, Punkin Head, Chubby, Baby Son Boy Man Face, and then just general pet names, like Honey Bun, Munchkin, and Smiles. Brady most often calls him Little Monkey or Chunky Mustard. Don’t ask me about that last one, I don’t know. I’m going to try to find pictures to go along with some of these, so you can see which expression goes with which face.

Punkin Head, or Baba
Chubby or Bubbles
Goosey!
Monkey

These are just a few, but they’re the best ones. Great names for a fabulous boy!

 

3 of 6: Learning. The lighter side.

My boy is such a smarty-pants.

I was never concerned about trying to teach him a whole ton of stuff his first year. He should be playing!!! Right? Right. He has picked up a few things on his own though. Most of the day, he babbles “dadadada,” like pretty much every other baby. But if I enter a room and catch him off guard, or if he’s in his high chair and I’m getting his food, he babbles “mamamama.” So I think he’s starting to understand that, which I find really exciting! Also, a couple of months ago already, he picked up high fiving. Well, low fiving really, but still. Anyone who knows Dekker knows that he likes to pat/hit most anything thats nearby. I think thats where it started. When he would hit our hands, we would say “Oh, Dekker, are you giving a high five?” It was sort of an unconscious effort, but when we asked him for a high five and he gave it, we were thrilled!

The same thing happened with clapping. We learned how to clap by himself, but as soon as we would ask him for it, or clap along with him, he would stop. So we decided not to push it at all and just celebrated every time he clapped . Then one day, while he was playing on the floor, I just said to him “Dekker, can you clap?” BIG smile and lots of clapping! I was so excited, I called Brady right away. Those of you who are parents can understand celebrating silly little things 🙂

After all of this had happened, I made the mistake of reading something online that said how “developed” my son should be in certain areas. Apparently he was supposed to be waving at ten months. I laughed that off right away, thinking that clearly my son was developed fine, and just because he hadn’t learned to wave didn’t mean he hadn’t learned other things. Right? I mean, how often do we leave him, and wave goodbye to him? Not often! Either way, I forgot about it. For a few days.

Everywhere we go, Dekker is very popular. You’ll know this if you’ve ever ran errands with us, or went on a road trip. He seems to really charm pretty much everyone. I’m always so proud of him. However, people are starting to wave bye-bye to him, expecting a response, and more often than not, that just gets a deadpan stare from him. So I’ve been thinking he needs to learn to wave.

About a week ago, we had some family out, and we all started waving at Dekker when he would go to bed. Just a couple days of that, but he was always really happy to have a crowd waving at him. Over the last few days, I’ve been waving at him when Brady carries him off to bed at night. Its taken convincing, but already a couple of days ago, he’s been waving at me at nighttime!!! He learned how to wave in less than a week! He’s getting way to smart. I’m not sure I’m ready for this!

I only have one picture of him clapping, but you can’t really tell. He’s going in for a clap anyway. Just true me ok? These events are hard to capture on camera.

2 of 6: Sleeping

Not everyone has the luxury of a baby who loves sleeping. I do!!!

When Dekker was freshly born, he slept constantly, like lots of babies. He never really got nights and days mixed up. He just slept. Once that constantly sleepy phase ended, he was still easy to read. If he was crying, but he was dry, fed, and warm, then he was tired and just needed to cry a little. He’s always been pretty straightforward that way.

Nowadays, my son has completely stopped “cueing.” He doesn’t really show me if he’s tired or hungry or anything. He’s very trusting, and knows that I will feed him when its time, or put him to bed on time. I should clarify. If he’s been up for most of the day due to a trip to the city or something like that, then of course he cries, letting me know. But most of those times, I know he’s being pushed and that he’s tired. No brainer.

Most mornings, he wakes up, has his breakfast, and plays on the floor. He used to be falling over tired in about an hour to maybe an hour and a half. These days, he’ll play hard for two hours without showing any signs of fatigue. I know two hours doesn’t seem like much, buts its pretty long for him! So even though he doesn’t cue, I’ve been putting him down for a nap after two hours. Silly baby still loves the swaddle 🙂 He gets out of it every time, but when I lay him down on his blanket and put his one arm at his side to wrap it, he just smiles his content smile and lays quietly. He loooves bedtime! As soon as he’s all wrapped up in his grande burrito, I poke his little hips and he laughs and laughs. We call them his “funny buttons.” I then have to take the happiest little boy in the world and put him to bed when I’d rather just keep playing with him! But I put him in his crib, tell him I absolutely love him, and leave his room. Not a peep for at least two hours. He’s amazing.

Sleeping baby means sleeping mommy and daddy. There are a lot of happy, well rested people in our house.

1 of 6: Diapers

I’ve decided that leading up to Dekker’s birthday, I will dedicate each post to something I love about having him around, or just about him in general.

*Disclaimer: There will be “potty talk” in this one, so if you can’t stand the stench, get out of the…blog post…

This first one is often not true. I definitely don’t always enjoy changing diapers. No one does, I don’t think. I am, however, very thankful to have diapers! A fresh diaper can really make everything better. Our routine at home is to change Deks right before every meal, and then as needed in between. The in betweener is usually for his daily poop, if that doesn’t fit into the “before every meal” schedule. That diaper change is of course, the yuckiest one of the day. No one wants to be that close to poop. Including Dekker!! He usually fusses until I discover what’s “gone down.” But when I pick him up and carry his stinky bum to his change table in his room, he is a happy camper. Cleaning him up may leave me with oily fingers and a yucky smell in my nose, but its such a relief for him. He feels sooo much better after he’s all fresh and dry. Makes it completely worth it!

Something I also like about diaper changes are that he knows his change area very well. He’s never come close to rolling off. Not that we don’t hold him! But he knows. I could count on one hand the number of times we’ve changed him in our house where we haven’t opted for his change table. He doesn’t put up much of a fight at all. Just lays there and patiently waits, and plays. Not sure what I’m going to do with his enormous frame, as its starting to really fill that table up! But it works now anyway.

When Dekker does fight a diaper change, I sing to him. Always the same song, and it always works. I don’t know how old the song it, but its derived from “K-K-K-Katy.” I’ve changed it into “D-D-D-Dekker” but the rest is the same. He loves it, and he watches me intently while I sing it over and over, doing up his diaper and pulling the leg wings out in the meantime.

Lastly, my faaavorite diaper change is the tired diaper change. These are the ones you don’t see coming. He’ll be playing away, totally happy, and I’ll catch a whiff of something. So I’ll pick him up and take him away from all his toys to go change him. Instead of protesting, he’ll heave a big sigh, rub his eyes, and lay his head on my shoulder. My heart melts for this boy! From there, I change his diaper very gently and not very playfully. Everything is dim and quiet. Then I can wrap him up and put him down, knowing he will be comfortable and dry for his entire nap.

He is so happy.

Diaper change with Daddy at Grandma and Grandpas

One more week

Dekker will be a year old in one week. Mind=blown.

You know how people say time just flies and all of a sudden, they’re graduated and moving out? I used to laugh at those people like everyone else does who doesn’t have kids. And then I had Dekker, and still laughed at them. When Dekker was born, he just fit right in. Seriously! We barely had to change anything to accommodate him, he just fit into our schedule! When he was two weeks old and we brought him to church, everyone kept saying how he was already  two whooooole weeks old, and I just never felt that way! He had just always been there, right? But that also goes with the feeling of not really remembering life before your babies.

I turned a corner when he was six months old. SIX MONTHS?!?! As in, half of a full year?! Working in an office position, time always dragged. A year took forever to get through. And then all of a sudden, my baby (who I swear I delivered yesterday) is half a year old! It was a bit of a kick in the face. Since then, time hasn’t slowed at all. I can barely fathom the fact that Dekker is almost a year old. I could pretty much cry at the drop of a hat, haha!

I don’t want to get too wrapped up in this post, as the time for that is next Tuesday. Also, Deks is yodeling from his room so I should probably go save him soon.

To clarify, while it feels like I delivered him yesterday, I’m happy that I didn’t. That would certainly be  record-breaking (among other-things-breaking) birth!

Look what I made!!!

Ok, for the record, I definitely had help with this! My sister, Caitlin, is considerably more confident in the kitchen than me, and even she was a little nervous for part of this recipe. Luckily, we had each other, and even my mom for part of it, despite the fact that the cake was for her. Behold!

The recipe can be found here. The icing recipe is attached to the original recipe on the link.

We made the layer cakes the night before. The batter was gorgeous! I believe the recipe says to bake for 25-30 minutes so, coming from a home where the oven is always way hotter than the recipes seem to think, we set the timer for 23 minutes and left it alone. When we checked it, the cakes looked wet and bright white still. So we confidently threw them in for another five minutes. After that, they were still surprisingly white! We were kind of floored, and then really floored when the toothpick test came out clean! The sides had browned beautifully, but the cakes were just stark white. If it isn’t obvious, I usually make cake mix cakes. This is a very new development for me!  We put the layers in the freezer so they would be easy to ice together the next day.

Here’s the scary part. Homemade caramel icing!!! There are easy, four ingredient icing recipes that we had lined up for backup plans, but I was hellbent on making this exact cake and Caity was game. So we put all the SUPER HEALTHY ingredients in my biggest pot (before a stock pot) and stirred and stirred. It was really frustrating at first, since its milk-based, and we had to be extra careful to not scorch anything. Yet, if we kept it on any heat, it would foam up sooo fast! It took a while for it to boil down at all. We kept at it, even though it really just looked like we were stirring milk, foaming up, foaming back down, stirring milk, foaming up, foaming back down. And then all of a sudden, there was a yellow streak in the milk. We thought it was maybe butter that hadn’t stirred it, but the icing progressively got yellower. Light, light yellow, but yellow nonetheless. We were probably already a good half hour into the process and pretty much ready to throw the towel in. And then we tasted it. Expecting a “buttered popcorn” flavor, we were more than thrilled to be greeted by an undeniable buttery caramel! It was still a pretty long job after that but oh so worth it! Once the caramel was at the “soft ball stage” (I definitely looked that up on youtube) we had to pull it off the stove and just stir the crazy out of it for several minutes to get it into an icing texture. I have not worked out my arms that way ever, and my son is like a solid sack of potatoes. Either way, a lot of blood, sweat, and tears (and butter AND Crisco) went into this cake! So worth it, everyone.

Not your average cake. I can vouch.

Someone is sooooo big!

My little boy pulled himself up today 😀 I could not be prouder. I could not be sadder to see his potbelly go. I also could not be more afraid of how baby-ready my house is not. Well, I could probably be more afraid, but I’m probably a six out of ten.

He was at my parents place, playing on the floor, as per usual. He’s been getting a lot stronger in the last few days (literally) and since this morning, he’s been pulling up on his knees. Something he’s probably been able to do for a long while, but just hasn’t really cared to. He’s always been a bit like that. Only rolled at 6.5 months, only sat at…maybe 8 months? Only started crawling on his hands and knees in the last week, so thats about 11.5 months. He’s a chubby baby who is happy to sit like a bump on a log and pat the floor. However, he grabbed onto my parents’ ottoman/hassock/whatever and yanked up onto his knees, then got his little feet under him and gave a big push. All the way to standing! He looked around, making sure everyone caught it, then sat his little bum down and didn’t do it again for the rest of the evening. Its like his little way of saying “Don’t stress, mom. I can do it. I’m not behind, I’m just content.” Such a breath of fresh air for me.