Does It Pass the Lacey Lick Test?

I know, it's no new thing for a baby to put everything in his or her mouth. But I think all the things Lacey samples during any given day is pretty funny.

"Delicious coffee table leg."

"Om nom nom, Mom knee."

Apparently dad's hairy leg is nothing to write home about.

"I ate my sock."

"Bleh! It doesn't taste good!"

"Yummy yoga bag strap!"

"Sunglasses go in my mouth."

"Mmmm... Planter!"

After the planter licking episode (not to be confused with the dirt eating episode from a few days before), I moved our house plants around so they are less accessible to curious babies named Lacey.

And finally... Toes. The best part of this video, by far, is that there is just saliva ALL OVER her face from all the slobbering.

Love.

This Girl's Got... Personality

Over the past few weeks, Lacey has become incredibly mobile. She rolls, she wiggles, and she gets where she wants to go. She is getting into all sorts of trouble, knocking over her diaper supply bin, attempting (unsuccessfully!) to roll off our couch, kicking our potted plants...

In addition to her newfound mobility, Lacey is showing us more and more of her personality. And it turns out, she's a bit of a clown. Here are a few moments I've managed to capture on camera.

I left Lacey on her back on the penguin pad, and left the room to clean the bathroom. When I came back she was like, "Oh! Hello, Mom! I'm over here!"

"Mom! Somehow I capsized my playmat on myself!"

" I found the books!"

"ALL the books!"

"I will read this one."

"I rolled under the table, and I am very upset about it!"

" I am digging my way to China, under this pillow."

"I defy gravity. No big deal."

"I'm sucking on dad's face!"

"And grandpa's face!"

"I grew tired of the toys you provided me, and rolled over here so I could chew on the baseboard."

And this one is my personal favourite. I came back from getting my breakfast, and this is what I found...

Every day, I don't think it is possible to love this little girl more. But I do!

Ladybug Toppers

My good friend, Paige, is expecting in early November, and her baby shower is this weekend. Of course, I jumped on the opportunity to make some sort of cupcakes for Paige's shower. She requested carrot cake (which is my favourite too). There may be an odd number of cupcakes arriving at her party... I don't know what could have happened to two of them!

At first I was having a bit of cupcake block. I don't know if that's a technical term, but I scoured my cupcake books and the internet, trying to come up with an idea of something to make for her blue and pink themed shower. I considered owls, bears, onesies, teddy bears and various other designs before I settled on blue and pink ladybugs! Although creating the ladybug toppers was a bit time consuming, the process was surprisingly simple.

Here's how they came together.

First, I needed candy melts. Three colours, black, pink and blue. I cut the pink and blue candy melts in half, and set them aside.

Then I drew out the design for the ladybug body on a piece of paper, and then I put some of the black candy melts into a ziploc bag. I microwaved them until they were melted and liquified. Next, I placed some wax paper over the paper template, clipped a corner off the ziploc bag, and piped the chocolate onto the wax paper to trace out the bug body.

Before the piped chocolate could cool, I stuck the halved candy melts into the chocolate to form the ladybug wings. As the chocolate solidified, the wings became attached. The main problem with this process is that the chocolate cools down every few minutes, so you have to put it back in the microwave repeatedly to get it back to piping temperature.

The most time consuming part was adding the ladybug dots onto the wings. This was again done with the black (chocolate) candy melts. Sometimes the chocolate would form stringers, and I would have to wait until the chocolate solidified before I could scrape off the little bits with a toothpick. Once the ladybugs were finished, I tucked them into a tupperware container, and stored them in the fridge for a couple of days (keep in mind, now that we have a baby, everything takes me about four days longer to accomplish than it used to!).

Today I made the cupcakes and frosting, and assembled all the cupcakes.

Voila!

I'm super pleased with how they turned out. Hopefully they will get gobbled up tomorrow!

Cherry Picking

So here we are at the August long weekend. Nearly five months have gone by since Lacey arrived, I have no idea how that happened!

Lacey is developing a sense of humor. She laughs and squeals when we airplane her above us. She rolls around with surprising ease and she fully supports her own head. She sucks on her toes, she can't be trusted on her own on any kind of raised surface, and she continues to sleep through the night. She loves when we go outside-- there are so many interesting things to see!

Jeff cleaning off a cherry bush.

This weekend, at the suggestion of our friends,  Jeff and Gwen, we went on a cherry picking adventure to Saskatoon Farm,  between Okotoks and De Winton. We picked a few Saskatoon berries,  but mainly sour cherries.

Lacey and dad, cherry picking.

We arrived at the farm quite a bit later than we intended. Lacey had a mega meltdown when we tried to feed her before we left, and the normal ten minute task took forty minutes to accomplish-- and even so, she barely ate anything. We were worried she was going to be a grump on the farm. But no, after a thirty minute cat nap in the car, she was her regular sunshiny self.

Lacey helping with the cherry picking.

Lacey's dexterity is getting much better, so she was grabbing at leaves and branches while we were picking fruit from the bushes. She also has an iron grip, so a few of the bushes may have lost some leaves.

We also got a few Saskatoon berries, but we were at the end of the Saskatoon season, so there was slim pickings.

The haul!

 We got a pretty good haul! We could have picked more, but we didn't think we could eat any more than half of a bucket.

There were lots of families picking berries today, and we figured it would be even more fun when Lacey is older, and she can pick her own bucket. Apparently this is the last picking weekend of the season. So we'll have to wait for another year.

Newborn Photos and 3 Months

When Lacey was two weeks old, we did a newborn photo session. At first we weren't sure if we wanted to do one, but both Tom and I are very glad that we took the time to do it. It's only been three months since Lacey was born, but already it's hard to imagine that she was so very very little.

We did our photos with the lovely Jackie Ho, from Life Unscripted Photography. Jackie and I don't know each other too well, but she lives about a block away from my parents, and we used to wait at the same bus stop every morning to catch the bus to school. She is good friends with another friend of mine, and I always see her beautiful photos coming up in my Facebook newsfeed. I think she did a great job at capturing us, and Lacey! Here are a handful of my favourites.

In three months, it's hard to reconcile this tiny scrunched up newborn face with the chubby one that we're so familiar with now!

It's true what everyone says -- they grow so fast!

Crafters

Something about babies brings out the craftiness in people. One of the wonderful things about having a baby is that many of our friends and family have given us beautiful homemade gifts. I thought I would show off some of the thoughtful things people have made for Lacey. As you can see below, Lacey is surprised and delighted by all these gifts!

First of all, Lacey now has a lifetime supply of blankets and quilts. She is such a lucky girl! She will have quilts and afghans to last her entire childhood. I look forward to telling her about each and every one of them, and the person who made them for her when she's old enough to understand.

Crocheted blanket - Great Auntie Joan

Knitted blanket - Gwen

Winnie the Pooh quilt - Great Auntie June

Turquoise and grey quilt - Great Auntie Wendy

Vintage Snoopy quilt - Kim

I love that each design is so unique to each individual who made them. I can't believe how many people in our lives are so talented! I had no idea some of these people made made these kinds of things!

Personalized cross-stitch - Auntie Ashley

Knitted dolls - Great Aunt June

Knitted Baby Uggs - Great Auntie June

Knitted Love Bunny - Corina

My mom had also saved some of the clothing that my grandma had knitted for us, and we received some knitted toques and coats for Lacey as well. We've really appreciated all of the amazing gifts for Lacey. Thanks so much, everyone1

Here Fishy, Fishy!

One of the things I worried about while pregnant was how I would find time to do things for myself. I knew it would be hard once we had Lacey, but I was determined that I would carve out some me-time every once in a while to do things that I like to do.

Last week a set some time aside so I could make some cupcakes for a BBQ that one of my co-workers was hosting. The time had to be carefully allotted, and I made the cupcakes in parts. My plan was to make fish cupcakes, I drew out the design below:

Then I made the cupcakes in parts. I made the fins out of melted chocolate during the week while my parents were around to watch Lacey. I made the cupcakes and frosting later in the week with the help of Jill. And I decorated the cupcakes the day of the BBQ. Here is what the finished product looked like:

Pretty awesome, right? I love it when a design comes together!

So Tom and I loaded ourselves in the car, along with Lacey and all the cupcakes, and headed to the BBQ. Our host popped them into his fridge, and we had a chance to visit with co-workers that I hadn't seen in nine weeks! It was awesome! And then I asked our host if he could pull the cupcakes out of the fridge. 

And he did...

But he dropped the container!

There was full cupcake destruction! You guys, this is my worst nightmare! Of all the cupcakes and cakes I have made before, I have always been afraid that I would drop them before they made it to their destination! There was not a single fish left intact. They were all smushed and unrecognizable. I should have taken a picture of the destruction.

The kids still ate them, but I don't think they had any idea of what they were. And when I say the kids "ate" them, I mean that they sucked the frosting off them, and left soggy cakes everywhere.

Our host felt awful, it was clearly an accident. But it still makes me a little sad when I think about them. Poor little fishies!