Tuesday 6 December 2011

Birthday Boy

Exactly one year ago, after an awful lot of effort, I gave birth to a beautiful baby boy.
In the time that has followed I have changed many a dirty nappy, calmed him to sleep, wiped his tears and fed him more bottles of milk than I care to think.
In return he has lit up my life with his little smile and cracked me up with his infectious giggle. I can forgive every broken night just to see his sweet little face looking up at me in the cot, knowing that just seeing me is all he wants.
Enough sugar, to business.
We're having a big(ish) party for him on Saturday so I didn't want to do too much today, but neither did I want the day to pass without recognition. We gave him a present in the morning and he simply hadn't got a clue what to do with it, even after Andy started removing the paper for him. Inside was a wooden bench with holes containing pegs and a small wooden hammer to hit the pegs with. Thankfully Joseph hasn't grasped the concept yet as when he does I think I will have a permanent migraine.
Granny dropped by with a present of baby books and was treated to the sight of Joseph doing his almost walking. It's a bit "night of the living dead" at the moment, but he'll work it out.
A quote from Andy after reading one of the new books to Joseph - "Now we've read "Dear Zoo" what shall we have next, "War and Peace"? No, I don't think so, it's not a very good book. It's only survived because it's very long."
"That can't be right." I replied. "Jane Austen is still in print and most of her books aren't particularly long."
"Ah, but some of her books are good."
This is Andys take on literature, and he has an A level in English Literature. This apparently involved "King Lear", "Romeo and Juliet" and the poetry of Wilfred Owen. Did he analyse them purely on length?
I can't laugh, I only studied literature up to GCSE level and I got a D.
Back to the point -
Granny had bought Joseph a present and was demonstrating his drunken attempt at walking. Then we had some lunch and he ate his birthday cake. This isn't the big cake he will have at his party, but some small ones I made today as you can't have a birthday without cake, I believe there's a law about it somewhere.
They were just going to be brightly coloured sponge but my hand slipped as I was adding the dye and the mix ended up a bright vivid pink. There's only one thing to do at this point and that is to pretend that's what I meant to do all along and change tack slightly. I teamed them up with bright green icing and made white icing blobs with a chocolate drop in the top for eyes. A sliced glacé cherry made a mouth and we had little monster cakes.
After initial puzzlement Joseph loved the cake and was soon chomping away on it with gusto. Big chunks were picked up and squashed whole into his mouth and he continued determined until all was eaten, stopping only once to wipe an icing covered hand on the nearby table. He's like that, always wants to leave a foody hand print somewhere. I dread to think what effect the excess sugar will have on his nappy contents, nor the pink food colouring. I only hope it comes in the evening when Andy has to deal with it!
Now I'd best get going, things to do.....

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