Ethan's Reading!

Not much time but I just wanted to mark the day. Ethan read his first story last night. Doug and I were in shock that he picked it up so fast. It's amazing how fast they learn. Ethan was so excited that he wanted to practice in his bed last night instead of going to sleep. He was so proud of himself. It made me feel sooooooo good to see that spark in his eyes.

Blake's latest news

Yesterday I finally got a call from the endocronologist and got semi good news. All tests came back normal. Very good. No answers though. Not so good. The tests did show that his metabolism is high. Really? Who woulda thunk. The high point for the normal range of the thyroid test is 1.5 and Blake's result was 1.49. Still not high enough to burn through 1200 calories. On one of his growth hormone tests he was a hundreth of a point off of abnormally low. So the doc thinks that although he is still in the normal ranges that the combination of the two and how close they were to abnormal may be the cause of the problem but they can't say for sure. He will be reevaluated in 9 to 12 months to see if he has started to grow at a normal rate yet. If he hasn't caught up or is not on a normal curve yet then they will give him growth hormone shots. I don't think the shots would start at three but they never said. So for now we still give him a high calorie diet as well as we can and hope for the best. I'm really hoping he catches up soon so that we don't have to do the shots but if we do, it could be a lot worse right?

Doug's Christmas Party

This past weekend was Doug's company Holiday party and surprisingly we had a good time. Mostly because we got away as much as possible. Every year they have the party at the Pfister in Milwaukee. It's a really swanky hotel but their pillows suck. It was the first time we had been away from Blake that long and as much as I love my boys it was nice to get away for a little mommy and daddy time. It was nice not to be interrupted every other word and to have some adult conversation but we did miss them. Every year there are celebrity sightings at this hotel since it's the nicest hotel in Milwaukee. I could really care less but this year the guys of the company got a special treat. The Cleveland Cavaliers were playing the Bucks on Sunday so Shaq and Lebron James were at our hotel and seen often. Personally I'd rather see them at a game than walking thru a hallway but the guys loved seeing these basketball legends. The Baltimore Ravens also stayed at the hotel which got Doug excited since their quarterback was from his dad's university. We also met a woman from the music biz that I will not name but will say she was one of the nicest, real people I have ever met. We talked to her for a long time and exchanged numbers so I hope that we get to talk again in the future. All in all a good date night for Doug and I. Too bad we only get that once a year. Can't we do a holiday party every couple of months? Just so we can recharge our batteries.

Anemone and Ranunculus Wedding Cake

Whew! It's been a busy past couple of weeks. Here are some pics of my first ever wedding cake. Most of you have seen these already but I wanted to post it for myself for when I make a book of all my blogs. This cake was an almond pound cake with raspberry cheescake italian meringue buttercream and homemade raspberry preserves and a coconut pound cake with lemon italian meringue buttercream. Yumm. I also made one more cake just to serve that was coconut pound with coconut flakes and coconut meringue buttercream. The flowers are all made out of gumpaste and the ones that are painted are painted with an edible paint. I had to teach myself how to make these flowers so it took me weeks to make 37 flowers. I could not have made this cake though without the help of Tina, Amy, Beth, and Nikki. Beth painted some ranunculus for me while I took Blake down to his endocronologist appt. She did an amazing job and the cake wouldn't have been as beautiful without them. I had a little disaster but I was saved by my wonderful team. On Thursday after a long day at the hospital with Blake, I came home and Tina and I put together two of the larger cakes. The two tiers were three pound cakes each and everything was made from scratch so it was satisfying to see two of them done. Well that night, before we put them together, I made the icing to cover them. I was distracted by a crying Blake and forgot to add the extra ingredient that makes it shelf stable. It wasn't part of the original recipe. It's something that you have to add at the end. Anyway we stayed up late putting the cakes together and icing them only to realize in the morning that I couldn't use them and had to start over. So Friday night my team and I made 6 new cakes and two more batches of icing, carved, leveled, and iced the two make up cakes, covered all cakes in fondant, finished my gumpaste flowers, and piped on the design. It was a lot of work and there is no way I could have done it without my team. I had Tina who's pregnant, Amy that had to leave for work by 4:30 the next morning and Nikki with fybromyalgia. I felt awful that they all stayed up so late working so hard but they refused to give up, so thank you so very, very, very much. Saturday Tina and I did the finishing touches and delivered the cake successfully only to have another little hiccup once we got there. We went to put the support dowels in only to realize that they were too long. I surprised myself and stayed semi calm and we figured out how to fix it without a saw. Aunt Aleatha helped me place the flowers and it was awesome to see it finished. It was better than I had even envisioned. Thank you so much to all those that helped. Even those of you that watched the boys. I couldn't have done it without all of you.

Blake's first tooth!

Yeah! Today is the day that Blake's first tooth has broken thru. Have you ever heard of a kid teething so late? The doctor yesterday was so happy that a tooth was coming thru that her eyes teared up. She's so funny. She was just as happy about it as I am. We are going to have a little family celebration for the momentus occasion. I know it's weird but if you waited 18 mos. for a tooth to come then you would be celebrating too.

Blake's Update

So last Tuesday we had our last Gastroentestinal and Nutritionist visit. Blake is now 17 lbs. 15 oz. and 29 1/2 inches long. Since Sep 1 he has gained 8 oz. and grew 3/4 of an inch. He dropped again on the chart. Just when I thought he might start catching up he started to dive again. Needlessly to say I didn't take the news very well. I know things could be so much worse, which I am so thankful for, but I work really hard to make sure Blake gets as many calories as I can everyday. To see no improvement was disheartening to say the least. The doctor and nutritionist literally told me that they give up and that they have no idea what is wrong with him. They only know that something is wrong. What child eats 1200 to 1400 calories a day and doesn't gain weight. Ugh, frustrating. So now we are going to see an endocronologist on Nov. 19. We are hoping that they can figure this out. An endocronologist is a doctor that studies glands and hormones. They study things like Turner syndrome, growth hormone deficiencies, dwarfism, thyroid and pituitary problems just to name a few. I am not looking forward to this visit but at the same time I am. I am hoping that they can finally find a diagnosis but I am not looking forward to doing more tests. From doing some research, one of the first tests they do is a cat scan of the brain to make sure there is no tumor. So scary. I never should have looked that up. I don't really think he has a tumor but just the thought of the possibility keeps me up at night. As sad as I feel about Blake, I feel just as blessed that he is as healthy as he is. Things could be so much worse and I try to remind myself of that every time I get sad about it. He is so happy and for now he has no idea that he's a shrimp. I will keep everyone updated with his stats but in the mean time I am asking that you keep him in your prayers. I am praying for support and guidance. I pray that the doctor's figure this out quickly so we can get a plan in action. The worst part is the not knowing. Oh well at least the kids keep me busy enough that I can't drown in worry. Oh and then there's that little business I'm trying to get up and running that keeping me crazy busy too. So excited about that and the kids like eating my test cakes. I think all of us have gained weight for Blake by eating all these cakes. Can I just donate mine to Blake?

The Sugar Mamas Cakery

If you haven't heard, we have come up with a new name for our cake business. It used to be A Slice of Heaven Cakery. It is now The Sugar Mamas Cakery. It's kind of a funny story about how we got that. I was talking to Doug about our repair bill for our car and he was stressed out about paying for it. So I told him not to worry because my cake business was going to make tons of money and that I would be his sugar mama. Aha moment! We both started laughing and said, "That's it! That's the name!" I laughed my butt off and still can't help laughing every time I say it. What do you all think of it?

Here are my latest creations. The margarita cake was for a client and the chocolate one was for my father in law.

This cake is a cream cheese key lime cake.

This cake I was lucky enough to eat. It was a yummy, yummy chocolate cake with a vanilla swiss meringue buttercream and strawberry filling, covered in delicious chocolate ganache. Oh ridiculous. I call it my chocolate lovers cake. It was so delicous that even though my stomach ached from being so full, I had to have another piece. Everyone moaned and groaned when we ate this. Oh how I miss you chocolate cake.