The Bailey Chronicles

Saturday John said his goodbyes to working inside of a Best Buy store and is now officially District staff!  One of the perks to being a District Staff member is that he no longer works 10 hour days, he's back to 8 or 9 hours DAY time shifts Mon-Fri.  Sooo weird when you have been in the land of retail your whole life!  Bonus his first Sunday off happened to be on Father's Day.  Bailey and I got him a Dallas Cowboy's helmet for our ubber fan.  I feel that this is some what of a pointless gift because I don't know what he's really going to do with it, but he's been talking about having one for a long time so it made him incredibly happy and that's what is important.  Bailey colored in his card and helped me sign her name, and then walked over to him that morning handing him his sweet card. My Mother's Day card, however, is still unsigned and unrecorded sitting on a counter some where that slacker lol!!  Later that day we met the Carminatis, and Nanny and Poppy for dinner at Chuys.  I made an Italian Cream Cake for dessert and brought it with us to the restaurant.  I don't know if that's weird, but I have delivered several cakes to restaurants for our business and seeing as how it was a holiday I figured it would be cool, we also shared some with the waitress and a fellow cake enthusiast waiter.

John started his new job on Monday and is absolutely loving it!  I think it is exactly what he needed to rejuvenate himself, because it's all he can talk about.  I am so happy that he is coming home so amped up about his job... and I love that he is home normal hours to play with us!  It's like your first week of school how excited you get about your friends being in your new classes and your teachers and everything is a new start.  It's made our evenings way more enjoyable and we are both feeling rather blessed at this moment in our lives!

My birthday was on Wednesday and my sweet hubby was on his A game.  He brought home some beautiful red Painter's Roses, maybe a dozen or so stems.  I have never seen a Painter's rose before so for those of you unfamiliar with them like myself they are fantastically stripey and totally unique to anything I've ever seen before.  He also had a card from him and a card from Bailey which she signed and colored and brought to me :D  We went out to Kobe's Steak House meeting up with some friends and the Carminatis for some hibachi action.  Candi made me a custom crib skirt for Bailey's room and her very first toddler pillow!!!  So cute!  Now I need to get curtains and I'll photograph her finished room!  

I had so much fun on my birthday that I have decided that it should go on for a full week.  I asked John if he was cool with this and he agreed.  Ok so I might of asked him when he was all sleepy and full from hibachi, but he agreed so I am sticking with this idea.  The next day Candi and I snuck off for a girl's night.  My PIC (partner in crime) from High School, Sarah, has an older brother Craig.  Craig has been a lot of fun to hang out with for years, but it was only through Facebook that I realized he was in the same class as Candi and that they actually knew each other.  He hosts a cooking class every two weeks, so we thought it would be fun to take a class from him since we both know him.  We had a great time letting him cook us some yummy food and drinking all night without having to take care of children or do dishes and such.  We will be doing this again for sure, and hopefully bringing some friends with us for future classes!  I know a lot of Mommy's out there dying for a break from time to time!  And as a reward to John for being such a great hubby I fixed him the meal I learned for tonight's dinner so we all win. 

Bailey has been a little hooligan lately.  She searches for pens, crayons, markers, etc in drawers and then uses them to color on the walls and door ways.  ROTTEN!  I have to keep a close eye on her, she's a sneaky little ninja!  She destroys the house if I get on the phone or the computer, much like a puppy would do the minute you leave home.  I know it's to get my attention but I am not really sure if I should be putting her in time out for it or trying harder to keep her entertained.  She is also trying to get more and more independence, so I've been letting her feed herself scary things like yogurt and purees in addition to her regular finger foods with her very own big girl toddler forks and spoons.  She is usually covered in her meal when she is done, but it makes her so happy to do it herself.  She is such a happy girl all smiles and giggles and hugs and kisses about 90% of the time.  The other 10% is the occasional toddler outburst or pout but at least she's easy to distract and make happy again.

John brings Bailey to come lay in bed with us the other morning as we were slowly trying to wake up.  As we were discussing what we wanted / needed to do that day Bailey climbed out of our bed and wondered off.  She comes back in and to my surprise she looked like this... 

She had tried to eat a fat black washable marker LOL.  The Halloween look at me cracking up so hard that I was crying.  She has definitely become an expert lid taker offer and it has led to nothing but trouble.  

A few of our favorite shows to watch after B goes to bed for the night are True Blood, Dexter, and Big love on HBO and Showtime.  John and I get so excited when a new season launches for any of those three series, and it becomes a weekend ritual for us try and get B down for bed early so we can eat dinner together and watch what crazy plot twist happens next.  True Blood finally started back up this Sunday with it's season 3 premiere and we couldn't have been more excited about it.  Candi and I were supposed to get together earlier that week but something came up and she had to cancel so she had the idea of doing a True Blood party at my house and the kids could play in the back bedrooms while we viewed.  I found this as a great excuse to do some True Blood cupcakes and as I was looking online to get some inspiration for cupcake toppers I not only found cupcake ideas but also found a design that would make a cool graphic cake so then I was sucked in and fully committed to doing both.  Seems like too much dessert, nah who am I kidding?  It would make the kids very happy to have so much cake to munch on!  And then I was sneaky enough to send most of it home with the Carminati's so I wouldn't completely fall off my diet LOL I might have sabotaged Candi's though!  Now we had a theme going and I had to see it through to the end.

What dinner should be served at a True Blood party you ask??  Cajun of course, since it is set in Louisiana!  I remembered Bree talking about her amazing Jambalaya recipe, perfect!  It was soooo amazing, and fragrant and delicious!  This recipe made a JUMBO pot of Jambalaya and everyone gobbled it down so fast that there was really only one bowl left for lunch the following day, definitely a keeper!!  I found some Zapps Voodoo gumbo chips at the store for appetizers and some battered green beans that I served with spicy ranch.  Candi brought a blood red home made Sangria (sooo good!!  tasted like an alcoholic fruit punch!).  All of this for True Blood hahaha!!  It was lots of fun, the premiere was awesome, and the food rocked!  I would definitely do all of this again for next season!  If I had had the time I would have got some cheap party decor to dress the kitchen up as Merlotte's Bar and Grill and the naughty drink and dessert bar as Fangtasia, but I had a lot I was trying to squeeze in in one weekend with real clients and all.  

Summer has been so incredibly busy for Bree and I!  We were totally booked up through May and June, and our July is filling up fast with some big weddings and several tastings!  Sorry if I have a hard time keeping up with the blog this summer, I will do my best not to neglect it!  But it can be hard to juggle late night cakes with early morning momminess and taking care of the house and the hubby and squeezing in some work outs.  It's all so great though!  Loving the buzz!

One of my closest friends, Jen, and her 7 month old son, Loyal, came to visit this past weekend.  They stayed at our house in our spare room, and this was Bailey's first experience being around a baby younger than her for any length of time.  It wasn't as scary as I thought it could have been.  She was very excited by him at first wanting to show him all of her toys and how they work, by then end of the weekend she was over him touching her toys and that was when I really had to keep my eyes on her.  But like I said, for the most part she was really good with him and listened to me when she needed to be corrected.  

On day 1 we had a play date with another friend's little girl who is just a few months older than Bailey, and Loyal.  By the end of it poor baby Loy was a little over stimulated and having a hard time napping so Jen ran a bath for him.  Bailey ran over to the tub and leaned in to touch the water... plop, in goes Bailey fully dressed face first into the tub.  She looked up not sure if she wanted to laugh or cry, and then decided she was ok with what happened when she saw us laughing at the situation.  Baby Loyal didn't find it as funny as the rest of us. 

Day 2 we went to the baby shower for another friend, delivering the Monkey Cake, while John watched Bailey at home.  Another Mommy was there with a toddler about 14 months who liked to throw everything he picked up.... I have to admit I am not missing that stage one little bit!  The cake was a huge hit at the shower, and the kids loved eating the bananas and monkey heads.  They thought that the fact that it was all edible was pretty special.  

and then Day 3, the final day of their trip.  Nothing special was planned that day.  I ran to Chiloso's that morning to pick up some breakfast tacos for everyone.  A potato egg and cheese breakfast taco is Bailey's favorite breakfast treat.  Jen asked when I first started feeding Bailey eggs and I told her at 8 or 9 months I started feeding her scrambled eggs mixed with spinach because they were easy for her to pick up and easy to chew with out choking.  So Loyal got his first taste of scrambled eggs.  He loved them.  Gobbled up the entire egg out of her taco.  Ten to fifteen minutes pass and he starts breaking out in red bumps on his chin, and then his chest, neck, back, and behind his knees.  We head off to Walmart to get him some Benadryl.  She asks the pharmacist at Walmart the correct dose to give a 7 month old.  The lady at Walmart gets all crazy on her and tells her to dial 911 immediately.  Jen calls her on call doctor, but can't get a hold of anybody.  Calls back at the house and neither John or her mom answer the phone and panic sets in.  Did I mention she is 7 months pregnant?  By this point she is beyond stressed and calls 911 because nobody would help us and allergic reactions can become really bad really fast or just go away, but by that point her mind was understandably now on worst case scenario.  Our local fire department comes out immediately to check him out.  Fortunately his break out symptoms had already started to disappear and all of his vitals were totally normal.  I think the whole fire department showed up at my house, and then once they were there they just wanted to hang out LOL.  They checked our smoke detectors and offered to pose for some pics.  and then asked if we wanted a tour of the fire truck.  Guess there weren't many emergencies happening in our small town that day.  

Today was the last day of school for my niece and nephew.  Bailey and I went up to Bella's school to watch their talent show.  It was adorable, and some where very talented with the dancing WOW!  And some were a little brutal with the singing and the instrument playing, but in all fairness it is quite scary to get up in front of such a large auditorium of parents and students to perform.  I think I wouldn't have been able to do it, especially not at that age!  Bella and her little buddy Caleb, who is totally adorable, did a short poem about a brother and sister box.  I am unfamiliar with this story so I couldn't tell you what it is from, you'd have to ask her or Candi.  Bailey was great the whole time and was absolutely delighted to see Bella.  She just loves her so much!  

Afterwords Bailey stayed with her cousins and her Aunt while I headed off to do a cake with Bree for a friend's baby shower.  She will be having a boy and did her nursery in a monkey theme so we did the most adorable monkey cake to match.  My bf, Jen from Colorado, and her 6 mo. old son will be staying at our house for weekend to go to the shower.  I am so excited to see her and to love on her baby!!  John has the weekend off so he can play too!