Nursing Your Kids

Sam’s second birthday is tomorrow and we’re throwing him a small party to celebrate. I’m not an indulgent parent. Sure, I’ll let him eat pretzels for breakfast, but when it comes to an event he’s not going to remember I’m not the type of person rent out an establishment or provide pony rides, clowns, Elmo or an ice sculpture. We went all out for his first birthday and invited all of our family and friends, but that was more of a milestone for us. We made it through a year. At this point, a year later, we’re glad to celebrate Sam’s second year of life outside the womb and look forward to his third, but at seven months pregnant I don’t feel like feeding fifty people again. So a small party it is.

Of course Bob’s family is big and close so small is relative. His generous aunts send cards and call when Sam’s sick so it would feel wrong not to invite them. And if we’re inviting his aunts and uncles it would be weird not to invite his cousins, who may or may not come anyway. Right now small looks like it’s going to be about twenty people. Maybe a few more, maybe a few less. We scheduled the party for four o’clock in the afternoon which is kind of an odd time for a party on a Sunday afternoon, but any earlier, say a normal two o’clock in the afternoon party, would probably interfere with naptime.

I’ve spent the last several days trying to clean parts of the house that haven’t been cleaned much and today while Sam naps I’m baking his birthday cake which I’ll freeze overnight and frost tomorrow. Rumor has it that frosting is much easier when a cake is frozen.

And now I’m going to tell you a secret that I may or may not share on the food blog. As I went to put the cake in the oven I realized the oven rack was set too low. I turned to put the cake pan on the island behind me, turned back to adjust the rack, and splat! The cake pan fell upside down on the swept, but certainly not clean floor. I froze for a moment, then scraped it back into the pan, tapped the side a few times to release any air bubbles, put it carefully on the island, adjusted the oven rack, and put it in the oven. I may pretend that it never happened. I may not. Time will tell.