Valentine's Day

We celebrated Valentine's Day (a little early) with a special cake that I came up with. I attempted to make a Twix cake because that is Shannon's favorite candy bar. I used my Betty Crocker Bake 'n' Fill pan set and baked a chocolate cake in the dome pan and the filler pan. I put caramel and chopped Twix bars between the layers and topped it with Cool Whip and more chopped Twix. It was muy tasty, and as you can see from the picture, Rebekah was quite pleased.

There were just a couple of elements that I hadn't thought through. I thought of several different kinds of caramel to use and settled on melting caramel candies to make the filling. It was very gooey but it didn't leak out of the cake. But topping it with Cool Whip meant that I had to store it in the refrigerator. The first slices of cake were fine, but the next day, the caramel was really tough to
eat. Next time I'll use a different kind of caramel--and there will be a next time. This cake is yummy!

Rebekah thinks that Valentine's Day is the best thing ever because she had a party at church, cake at home, and a party at school. She has been going through all of her valentines and wishing everyone Happy Valentine's Day all week long. But she also thinks that she got a birthday cake for Valentine's Day. Anything with icing is a birthday cake to her!

Shannon gave me some daisies in a pot (I always like plants rather than cut flowers) and some Hershey's extra dark chocolate. There is a ton of chocolate in our house right now, but I haven't come close to being tired of it yet (especially since Annabelle is helping me eat it!).

Annabelle update

I had a doctor's appointment on Monday and everything looks great. I gained a little more weight and a lot more belly, but all the measurements are right on target. We have made some progress in the middle name department--she might just be named Annabelle Shannon. But don't go monogramming anything just yet. We're definitely set on Annabelle, but the middle name still might change. Rebekah doesn't like Annabelle Shannon. She thinks her sister should be named Annabelle Girl, and she has started telling everyone that. I bought Rebekah an Easter dress this week, but I don't think we'll save it for Easter. I fully intend Annabelle to be here by Easter, so we probably won't be at church. And if you do see me at church on Easter Sunday, I'll probably be a very grouchy pregnant lady.

Our little terror...uh, I mean sweetheart

Wow! Has Rebekah been a handful lately! I don't know what's going on, but I hope she snaps out of it quick. Here are some high points of the past week:

• We went to a friend's church to see her baby baptized, and Rebekah threw a massive fit--make that three massive fits. She has pretty much outgrown the temper tantrums, but they have made a resurgence lately. The problem was that she really wanted to be in the sanctuary with everyone else, but she is just not old enough to sit still for that long. So when she started making noise and crawling down the aisles, I took her out. Which prompted the screaming fit. And my total embarrassment because we were in the front row with our friends because of the baptism, and I had to walk past the whole congregation with the screaming child. We pretty much missed the baptism.
  
• She wants to be fed like a baby. She refused to eat lunch at school one day because she wanted her teacher to feed her.
• She has not had a potty accident in weeks, until yesterday. I had to pick her up early from school because she had TWO accidents in one hour and had no more clothes to change into. Later that night she peed all over the living room floor. And I mean all over. She literally ran in a circle around the room while she peed.
• Same night, she was taking a bath and filled up her bath cup and dumped water all over me outside the tub. She has never done that before.
• Tuesday morning she woke me up, and I got out of bed and walked past her to the bathroom, thinking she would follow me. She stayed in my room and cried. I went back to check on her and she wouldn't tell me what was wrong or let me hold her. Finally she said, "I thought you didn't want me." How sad! Usually I follow her to the bathroom, and she got all upset when I left first. She told me that she wanted me to get back in bed, and I thought she wanted to lie down together. No. After I got in bed, she "woke me up" again so that we could start our morning routine the right way--we just had to start over from the beginning. And everything was okay after that.
• She has been waking up crying three or four times at night. Last night there was a monster in her room, and I had to say, "Yar!" and scare it away. ("Yar" is her version of a roar, and it is effective for scaring away any number of unpleasant imaginary visitors. And she has a lot of imaginary visitors.)

That's enough for now--you get the point. Something is troubling our little girl this week, but we haven't figured out what. I've been trying to balance discipline with extra hugs and kisses so hopefully she will feel better but also realize that she can't just misbehave and throw fits because she feels like it. Not easy, but that's life with a toddler (and probably a preview of her teen years!).

Speaking of babies

(and aren't I always speaking of babies?)

Our new baby niece, Kyra Lynn, was born last week to Shannon's sister Mikka and her husband Chris. And, of course, big brother Kade. Yea! But we won't get to see her or Juran and Randi's little Grace for awhile, since I'm very much pregnant and an eight hour drive away. That's why we love digital cameras.

Baby crafts

There are more and more babies all the time! Last year, among my friends and family, there were five new babies, and this year there will be at least five more, not even counting Annabelle. So this week I have been sewing after Rebekah goes to bed at night. It's nice to have a sewing machine now--I can make crafty gifts much more quickly than some of my other hobbies. I actually started crocheting a pair of booties for Annabelle while I was sitting at the hospital waiting on Dad's surgery. I hope I finish them by April, but I can't make any promises. Those little buggers take a long time.

Here's what I've made:

I'm of the opinion that you can't buy a decent baby blanket--they're all too small or too heavy--so I like to give homemade baby blankets as gifts. That also lets me pick out fun patterns and colors. So there are four blankets for four babies coming between now and May. I've already made one for Annabelle, but she'll probably get another one. I don't think that Rebekah is willing to share hers.

I also made this, which came out of my own imagination:

It's a lovey. It's a square of about 11 inches, with bunny ears on one corner and two tails on the another. It doesn't really look like anything, but I think a baby would like it because it is easy to hold in tiny fingers, and it has the fun little pieces on the corners to chew on. And it's safe for a baby to sleep with. And you can throw it in the washing machine. It's a good way to use some scrap fabric. I didn't make one of these for Annabelle, but I probably will later.

Bekah also got a valance in the yellow Care Bear print to go on one of her windows. It doesn't match the valance on the other window, which is a blue Care Bear print, but she picked it out herself. At least we're consistent with the Care Bears. Which is why Annabelle needs new crib bedding. I think big sister's Care Bears are off limits for the new baby.