Yankee Drawl

Posted By jayna on April 17, 2010

The Birthday

“I’m almost gettin’ three!”

For weeks, she told this to every passerby, neighbor, check-out girl, her grandparents, the husband and I, MJ and the cats. She’d struggle to keep the pinky finger down and wiggle the other three at her subject.

Finally, as she bounded into my room at the crack of dawn, she wiggled those three fingers, knowing that today the “almost gettin” part was done.

“What’s today?” I asked her, desperately trying to keep her from stealing all of my covers.

“I gots THREE!! The sevinty-TEENS!!!” she shouted, rolling over and taking every single cover with her in a fit of giggles.

So far, it’s good to be three.

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The Anniversary

Two years ago, I kicked my longest year to the curb and moved into this little corner of the blogosphere. We’ve gone so many places, grown so much, and survived so many of life’s dodgeballs. I’m so glad that I’ve had the opportunity to record each little detail right here. I couldn’t let the anniversary pass by without a mention.

I look back and am awed by how fast things have changed.

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The Humor

While they’re still little, we’re capitalizing on the girls having such close birthdays. A single trip home and a big old family bash. It won’t be long before they’re refusing to even share the same bathroom sink, so we might as well share! share! share! now.

After last year’s giant feat of a cake, I couldn’t bring myself to tone it down for this year. One of the cakes (yes, that is a plural there) is a dome shape, which scared the crap out of me. So, I needed a practice run. And what better time to practice, than Miss E’s actual birthday! Bowls were greased, carrot cake batter was poured and fingers were crossed. One hour later, and I had a lovely dome that easily popped out of the bowl.

As the queen of procrastination, I found myself mixing frosting as the rest of the family was finishing dinner. Finding absolutely no food coloring in the cabinets, I learned that sprinkles will work just as well to tint. Blue and purple make a lovely shade of Cinderella blue. With that discovery behind me, I pulled the bowl over to the cake. E’s only present for the day, a sparkling Cinderella doll, was ripped out of her packaging and stripped. And then came problem number two.

Cinderella was a wee bit too tall for the cake. I had conveniently forgotten that carrot cake doesn’t rise the way box cakes do, and there was no amount of frosting that was going to make up the difference. So . . .

A bit of cutting here and a bit of wiggling there and we had a lovely rendition of drunk tired Cinderella who has chugged danced too much and can’t even stand anymore!

(Really. It was lovely. Very lovely, considering I managed to frost and decorate it in under ten minutes while the husband was playing “keep the kids out of the kitchen” and complaining about how long I was taking. Never mind the crumbs all over and the tea lights we had to use as candles because I completely forgot about them, in addition to the food coloring and a main ingredient in the icing.)

E loved it. Her entire face lit up and she kept this silly grin all the way up until she began to inhale the frosting. The shoes sticking out were the biggest hit.

(Yes. My kids generally are shirtless at the dinner table. And yes. My now three year old does sit in a Bumbo seat to prevent her from fidgeting and falling off her chair. And yes. The baby’s arms/thighs/waist are/is bigger than E’s.)

After all was said and done and eaten and divided up to pawn off on the neighbors tomorrow, it was a success. I can cook a carrot cake. I can make a dome cake. I can frost creatively. And? Cinderella and I got to know each other very well tonight.

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