The Bailey Chronicles

Happy sweet 16 munchkin... 16 months that is ;oP not quite ready for keys to a car yet thank God! One of my favorite new Bailey feature is her Happy Feet! Have you seen that movie with the little penguin that shuffles his feet around all silly and happy, that is exactly what Bailey does. It cracks me up with her cute little munchkin body and diapered butt dancing around on her happy feet. Happy feet can happen at any given moment, snack time, Yo Gabba time, new diaper time, bath time, you name it. The more I cheer her on the happier the feet get LOL. It kills me! She's just so darn cute! I also find it funny when she blows raspberries on my arm or tummy or cheek. She's so silly and adorable, it's great! She's still on the small side, wears 6-12 month clothes. People are always shocked when I tell them how old she is, because of her size. This adds to the funniness... making up words now... to the Happy feet.

At this point she can say: Ut-ohhh, yeah, bye bye, Dada, Mama, ball, hi, Bella, and OH!

I made some cupcakes for dessert, and borrowed one to play around with for a new design that I thought could be fun. A Vera inspired cupcake dress. I think it's cute, although Disney princess cakes and Barbie cakes may have stolen the show for the whole cake dress idea. But maybe since it's a cupcake and not a giant brightly colored buttercream ball gown, it could be put to new uses such as for bridal showers or rehearsal dinners. What do you think?

One of my besties since High School, Barbara, is getting married! She asked me to be in her wedding as a bridesmaid, which I am both honored and stoked to do. She also wants to use us in making cakes for her wedding. Her main dessert will be gelato but would also like to do some smaller cakes for her guests as either wedding favors or to be served along side. We talked over her options and she is torn between mini cakes (single serving cakes that are no bigger than a cupcake but designed to mimic an actual wedding cake) and cupcakes. As I searched photos online of these adorable little mini cakes, I got inspired to create a series of my own. Unfortunately I don't have the piping skill set yet and some of the other skills that seasoned cake decorators have (thank goodness Bree does though!!)... some day I hope to take some classes or maybe even pastry school, but until then I have my art skills as my own personal specialty. Fortunately for me they don't teach drawing or painting skills in pastry school, at least I haven't heard that they do..., so those are something I have that are uniquely mine. I created a series of Van Gogh inspired mini cakes and I am really proud of how they turned out. These little cakes are the size of a round cookie cutter, maybe 2.5 inches high and 2.5 inches in diameter, cute enough to eat and would definitely be a cool statement at any wedding that all the guests would be talking about!

You may have noticed the lack of material that I have been posting. My little munchkin has a grip of teeth all trying to push in at once. Two top molars, two bottom molars, the top k-9 teeth, and two bottom front ones to name a few. This has made for some long days for the both of us. Not all of them are awful, they take turns on which days they want to bug her. But yeah... my poor little girl is drooly, bitey, chewy, emotional, needy, frustrated, temperamental, and nothing I do can really help at the moment. She wakes up whining, whines all day, and has trouble sleeping at night. I end most of my days with a migraine, and want nothing more than a cool dark room with the only sound being the melodic rhythm of my ceiling fan. Being on the computer is usually out of the question, the phone is tolerated for brief periods, and sometimes she is so miserable that she doesn't even want company over... which is totally out of her norm because she is a social butterfly, loves everyone who looks her way, those who don't are a challenge, and crowds are fascinating. I feel really bad for her, and I am absolutely amazed at how much patience I have. On the flip side, she has really become quite cuddly. A lot of times the only thing that makes her happy is snuggling up on me on the couch and watching cartoons, and it makes me so happy that I have the opportunity to be a stay at home Mom and be there for her when she is so miserable.

When she is happy she spends her day chasing Mr. Kitty around the house, "helping" me do the household chores, hiding her toys in random spots in the house, and climbing. The other day she climbed right out of her crib when she was supposed to be napping. I came in to find her hugging the rail of the crib and crying. We were able to lower to the lowest setting, which was only one step down and I hope that will contain her for a while. I don't think it will be an easy transition to the toddler bed, but I could be wrong. She has also taken a liking to purses or anything that has a strap to carry it around like a purse. So cute and girly of her. She also likes the fact that you can put things in and take things out of a purse, it is an amazing feature, quite possibly the second best part. Oh yeah, jumping and standing on our heads is also a great game. She has really developed a big sense of humor too. She cracks up at pretty much anything, the little party blowers that I had at her first birthday are a real doozy... we didn't like them at all at 12 months but at 15 months they are hilarious.