Cake Time

So, if you don't know, I'm not exactly Susie Homemaker. I don't cook. I don't enjoy cooking. I don't have patience for cooking. I don't like spending time on cooking. I hate recipes that have more than a few ingredients and I could NOT hate the prep work any more than I do. I don't like cooking. (I married a chef) My mom was even appalled that in all the years that Corey and I have been together, I have never once made him a birthday cake. I HAVE cooked meals for him, but never a cake. As a matter of fact I was trying to remember the last time I made a cake and I'm pretty sure it took place at least 10 years ago!! So, needless to say, I did not make my daughter a birthday cake - instead, we made one together and had soooo much fun!

She loved doing everything herself, with a little help from mom She didn't like the noise of the beaters, so we went old school and whisked the batter...it only took 10 minutes :-) but it made my baby happy!

Of course, against all health codes, I let her lick the batter

and a little more batter

and maybe just a little bit more

She wanted to show everyone the cake she made

She was a bit concerned about the frosting

She needed a bit of help to get it all frosted

But she was a pro with the sprinkles

She made sure to get some in every corner

I did manage to get her to take a quick break for a photo op

But then it was right back to the sprinkles

She didn't like eating them as much as she liked putting them on the cake

Then came song time.....

....her favorite part!

She had to make sure we were all singing

She liked it so much, she made us sing twice!!

Then she made her wish and blew out the candle

The finished product

I think we did a fabulous job!!

"Cannee"

Rarely does Nakiah get candy...at least from me, but when she does, she makes it memorable!

I'm just thankful she'd rather eat carrots and asparagus than chocolate and sweets

Attitude?....with a capital A!!

I'm crossing my fingers and hoping that this is just a "terrible twos" thing and that she will eventually outgrow the whole attitude thing she's got going on these days....

...something tells me, however, that I haven't even come close to seeing the worst of it

Bathtime

Nakiah likes to help me bathe Kicen in the sink...okay, she really mostly likes to mess with everything on the counter that is usually out of her reach without a chair. Oh and she also loves to dump water on her brother's head.

Kicen was a bit shocked initially by his first bath, but now I think he finds it a bit relaxing....especially if sister is busy in the other room. :-) He just kicks back and watches mommy

When I take him out of the water, he starts kicking his feet like he isn't ready to get out

Its Contagious

Kicen just has one of those smiles that lights up his whole face and can make you smile even if you're having a bad day....

He's my little piece of sunshine!

His Daddy's Boy

My sweet boy...

Should I be worried?

One minute she's all happy smiles, just hanging out with her brother....

....the next minute she's got a crazy I'm-going-to-send-him-down-the-slide-if-you-don't-stop-taking-pictures smile I politely put the camera down and relieved Nakiah of her posing responsibilities

Thank Heaven For Baby!!

Sharing?....whats that?

Kicen loves his Baby Einstein mat.

He loves to lay on his mat, watch the face light up and talk to the animals hanging all around him. Sometimes he gets fussy from being held too much and just wants to hang out on his mat...he'll even fall asleep on his own on his mat.

While most of Kicen's toys are hand me downs from Nakiah, she hasn't been interested in them for a very long time...... ....that is until Kicen plays with them!

If she isn't trying to cram herself onto the mat with Kicen, she's waiting in the wings to pounce on it as soon as he is removed.

She's even started grabbing some of the toys away from his area and saying "mine" or "Nakiah's toy"....hopefully she'll develop better sharing skills before Kicen is old enough to know, or I'm afraid I will spend many hours over the next 18 years listening to a bit of tattle telling.

GG & Papa

Lynden Fair

Last month Auma and I took the kids to the Lynden Fair

Nakiah LOVED it!!

She loves to see the animals and will pet and/or touch most of them as long as they aren't looking at her or moving....oh yeah, she also does NOT like any of the animals to make noises.

Kicen was so good the entire day! Nakiah loved hearing the bands on stage, even though they were just doing a warm up sound test, she really got into it and didn't want to leave

She was so excited about the slide. As soon as she saw it she kept pointing to it and saying "Yeah, yeah, Nakiah do it" She was excited when we bought tickets, excited while standing in line waiting our turn, excited walking up the steps to the top, excited when we sat down on our gunny sack.....not so excited going down the slide. The entire way down she said "no mommy, mommy no, no mommy, no mommy, mommy no!" She also (I'm not sure why) covered her ears the whole way down the slide. We got off the slide, gave our sack back and she said "Nakiah more do it".

She like the horses as long as I was holding on to her when they went up and down. If she even thought I was letting go, she grabbed on to my arm for dear life!

The cars by far were her favorite. She didn't want the ride to end, did not want to get out of the car and officially made me the mother with the screaming child as I pulled her from the ride.

But she had fun while it lasted

The roller coaster.....

First of all, this ride was NOT made for moms. You can't tell, but I have one leg bent with my knee on the floor and the other leg across Nakiah's lap, a bit uncomfortable to say the least. Nakiah would cry every time a new group of kids got on and we had to wait again. She wanted to ride this thing sooooo bad! We finally got on, squished ourselves into the seat and got ready to go. She was smiling and happy....until the ride started. She had her glasses on, so nobody could see tears and the ride was so clunky and loud nobody could hear her, but my poor baby had tears streaming down her face, begging me through her cries to be "all done". She was crying so hard and was so mad at me that when we got off the ride, she wouldn't even let me hold her, she only wanted her Auma. I think it will be a while before we try a roller coaster again.

She did, however, enjoy playing the games.

She really didn't care about any of the prizes, she just really liked fishing.

Her first snow cone, which she loved and did not want to share with her mean mother who took her on the scary roller coaster.

Here is Ben again. For those of you who have never been to the Lynden Fair and visited Ben, you need to go. This animal is soooo gigantic its insane. He is huge.

Nakiah and Ben are both standing on the same level ground, she comes up to just above his knees.

She liked looking at the ducks and chicks, but I couldn't get her to touch them.

I also could not get her to touch any of the piglets. The mommy pig getting up and making snorting noises didn't help. Nakiah couldn't get away from this cage fast enough after that.

She loved it when Auma made the baby cow stick his tongue out. It was quite difficult to get her away from the baby animals at the end of the day.