Naptime, please?

It's been a long week. Actually, mostly just a long weekend. I'm tired, Jon's tired of not seeing me, and Seth's actually pretty pleased that he spent all weekend with Daddy.

Big event #1 was our Girls' Camp Fundraiser. The girls in our ward offered to babysit ward members' children for 5 hours at the church on Friday (this included dinner for all the kids). Most of my week went into preparing for this (although my preparations had nothing on yours, Dawn!). Leaving 50+ kids in the hands of 12-18 year old girls is always a little terrifying, but things went incredibly well. I'm so proud of these girls!

Big event #2 was a cake decorating event. I volunteered to bring one cake for our Fundraiser bake sale, plus was commissioned to make a cake for a friend in the ward. So two cakes in two days. In the future, I will not do this to myself. I am absolutely not joking when I saw that Seth and I were in our pajamas until after 3pm that day. And we survived on peanuts, craisins, and dried pineapple chunks.

See? Pajamas. You're not getting a picture of me in mine.

And this is what my kitchen looks like after two cakes (notice especially the sink full of dishes and the counter next to the sink. Disgusting). You can see the bowl of peanuts, craisins and pineapple chunks in the foreground. That's pretty much all we ate until dinner.

Before I post the pictures of my cakes, I just want to say thank you for all the sweet comments on my lumpy cake. I am learning by experimentation, and it's a slow process.As you can see, this cake was Round Two of the lumpy cake fiasco. Here's what I learned this time:

1. Freeze the cake. Makes cutting that angle much easier.
2. Let the iced cake sit until the icing hardens. Then put on the fondant.
3. My fondant is too heavy. I need a better recipe.
4. I don't like using fondant on these topsy-turvy cakes. Fondant makes for rounded edges: I want sharp angles. From now on it's buttercream icing with fondant decorations.
5. My 8 inch pan is actually less than 8 inches. And my 7 inch pan is actually more than 7 inches. Thus the top layer that is almost exactly the same size as the top layer. Lesson learned.

I've got it all figured out for my next attempt.

I am not happy with my other cake. I didn't have enough time to figure out what I wanted to do, nor did I have enough time to do it. But at least Lightning McQueen looks good, right?Big Event #3 was Sunday. I found out on Saturday that I needed to attend Ward Council and BYC. Plus one of my Beehives was getting baptized after church. Which means I was at the church from 7:30 to 2:00 straight. I know that's nothing if you're in the bishopric, but it was a long day for me. Luckily Jon was able to take Seth home for lunch and a nap. No way he would have survived. Now I need a nap...

And now for some Seth updates, since that's the real reason for this blog (I should probably rename it "Seth...and a little Jonny and Megan").

If it weren't for his chubby cheeks, my baby wouldn't have any baby left in him. He's shooting up and thinning out (he grows like a Blood). He's also learned to say "no" and uses it frequently. "Seth, come lay down so I can change your diaper." "No." "Seth, time to go upstairs and read books." "No." "Seth, can you help Mommy clean up?" "No." It's loads of fun.

Other favorite words are 'helicopter' (he-cok-er), 'woodpecker' (woo-ca-ca), 'motorcycle' (mow-ca-ca) and 'big truck' (big cuck). That last one is always preceded by 'ooo.' As in, "Oooo, big cuck!" He also managed to figure out 'circle' (ker-coh) without instruction from his parents. No idea how.

Our personal favorite right now is 'fan.' Seth pronounces it 'man.' And it's usually doubled and preceded by 'ooo'. As in, "Oooo, man man." We have to say hi to the fans every morning.

Seth acquired his first Band-aid this weekend after getting an impressive skinned knee. I was at the fundraiser, otherwise I'd have photographic evidence. Now every time he sees the wound he says, 'Knee! Owie!'

He's turned into a lousy eater. Really lousy. I can't get him to eat anything. Just peanuts, pineapple chunks (they're so sugar-coated they might as well be candy) and apples. He used to love grapes and now he'll barely tolerate them, and only if they're sliced in half. Vegetables? Forget it. Pasta? Rice? Potatoes? Nothing. So now the question is, do I make him eat what's on his plate or feed him anything he'll eat to keep him from starving?

My favorite Sethism right now is his totally irrational fear of leaves. If there's a leaf within 5 feet of him, he freezes up. "Ooo, yeaf!" Sometimes we like to torture him by holding dried leaves near his face and watching him panic. Being a parent is awesome.

And last, but not least, Seth has learned the age-old art of pushing a chair over to the counter so he can get to the Easter candy. Needless to say, the candy has found a new home.
Lets end with some video evidence of new vocabulary words and a fair example of leaf-phobia:

And I've been saving the best for last:

I walked into the fundraiser on Friday and immediately looked for Debbie. The first thing she said to me?

"I'm adopting my daughter."

We both cried. It was absolutely a miracle. Thank you all for your prayers (that comes from Debbie, too).