A White Winter

Oh how I wish I was referring to some snow-capped mountains out yonder, and some snow covered hills and plains for me and baby to escape to and have snowball fights in...

But no...

Sadly, I am referring to my newly discovered snow-capped head!

Now I'd like to believe I am still a young'un, but as each day passes, my body and now my hair are quickly disagreeing with me. I'd say about this time, just one year ago, while I was preggo, swollen and ready to pop out baby, I probably had one or two, random gray hairs, very well hidden and buried under my mountain of a mane. Fast forward to now, and I swear, I find a new crop every time I look in the mirror!

This winter brings many gifts, and yes another gift of mommyhood, I now have gone, no not even gray, I've gone white! What is this? Of course, being a new mommy has introduced me to new levels of stress, paranoia, sleep deprivation, guilt and anxiety, but I didn't think that would manifest itself in my hair! Thank goodness for L'Oreal!

A trip to the salon, and "everything's gonna be alright."

This winter also brings insecurity and instability. I got an offer the other day. A job offer. A really good job offer. But baby is still not at the top of the daycare waitlists, they say it still looks like another year or so. So the hubby and I are searching for a Nanny. The thought still frightens me. How can I leave our lil one with a complete stranger? We hardly leave him alone with people we love and trust! And now I am expected to leave him alone with someone I don't know at all? The concept scares me. Do I go back to work? Do I stay at home? Why can't I have the happy ending like Diane Keaton in Baby Boom? The hubby says it'll work out somehow.

For the most part, the hubby is almost always right, so I have faith that "everything's gonna be alright."

And finally this winter brings with it a mobile toddler, he's not a baby anymore! He's a cruising, standing, finding-his-balance, clapping, stomping, almost-walking toddler! So I have a new workout regime...chasing baby. It's a grueling workout that really never ends.

Except for little breaks while baby is sleeping...like now.

So I should go and get some rest...or else...

"Everything's gonna be all white!"

Peace of Cake

So I'm knee deep in planning for baby's very 1st Birthday, and so far, the most challenging part?...The Cake.

You see, I'm a designer, which means...Aesthetics ARE everything! So everything needs to look good, including and especially the cake!

So we take a trip to our favorite neighborhood Porto's Bakery to place our order for their famous and super tasty Parisian Chocolate Cake! With the cake design idea already in mind, I place my order, and then make my first attempt to explain how I want it designed. I told her, I want it very clean, modern, no frills, just a smooth, clean dark chocolate brown fondant-like covering with a thin strip of red fondant with the writing on it - in print, not cursive. Simple enough right? Wrong! So I told her to hang tight while I get my husband.

Since I was sucessfully unsuccessful in explaining my design to her, I figured I'd let the more patient and more eloquent hubby give it a shot. So he says, "We would like just a plain brown cake, everything brown, no flower trim, nothing, and just a red stripe down the middle where you can put the message." Simple enough right?...This should be a piece of cake!

Wrong! So the server who was probably frustrated to no end with us brings us the cake decoration album once again and shows us all their elaborate, kid-friendly, designs, full of teddy bears, cars, princesses, balloons, dinos, trains, etc. Which is all fine and dandy, but we just want a plain brown cake with a red stripe! Piece of cake! How hard is this?

So she brought us her supervisor, and so the hubby and I tried once again to explain our desired design, and so the supervisor sort of got it, but made sure to ask us once more if we were positive we didn't want any cars on it? Oy Vey.

So we leave it in the Portos Gods hands, and drive away. Since I sit in the back with baby, the hubby can see me through the rear view mirror and noticed my distant stare out the window, and asked me if I was still worried about the cake design.

Ha! Worried? Yes, but I had a plan. I told him I was already contemplating on making Porto's a comp design of how I wanted it to look - I would draw it out in Illustrator and Photoshop and bring it back to them, so they could see exactly how I wanted it to look! Perfect plan!

So when we got home, I rushed over and went to work, and a few minutes later, I had my design ready, when I received a message from my brother saying he wanted to order the cake! I completely forgot! He always orders the cakes for our functions and always gets them at the same place, the very yummy, and very fancy, Sweet Lady Jane!

So we canceled our order with Porto's and I don't need a design example for Sweet Lady Jane since we've ordered from them several times in the past and I am a fan of their clean and modern cake designs.

So there you have it. I can relax now. Peace of Cake.