Today was a beautiful day that warmed up nicely.  Paul and Hannah spent some time outside.  When we were taking some trash to the dump, I pointed out a bunch of daffodils growing beside a pasture fence.  Paul was really taken with them.  When we got home, I showed him the daffodils blooming in our own flower bed.  He and Hannah enjoyed looking at them, and quicker than I could think, they were walking up to me each holding one they had picked.  Paul told me that we could look at them “since your other flowers died and we put them in the trash can”.  (He was referring to the ones they got me in February.)  We took them inside and put them in a small vase.  Paul carried that vase of flowers around for most of the rest of the day.  If he was going to read books, he sat them down beside him.  When he went outside, he took them along each step of the way.  Even when he was using the restroom, he took them along and sat them on the floor beside the little potty.  I’m not sure I’ve seen anyone get so much enjoyment and mileage out of some daffodils before!  They are pretty, that’s for sure.

Isn’t he incredibly handsome?  That’s
his new haircut that I just gave him.
I think it turned out the best that it has
in a while (don’t look too closely, Davene!)
and he didn’t cry at all during the
haircut, which is extremely rare!

Paul is still our wonderful, happy, kind-hearted, sensitive boy who is growing up a whole lot.  He is now able to put on his underwear and long pants all by himself.  So, most of the time, I just dress him from the waist up and let him do the rest.  He still loves books, and he loves for me to read to him, and he also “reads” to Hannah.  He seems to be at a plateau with his reading.  He can read most 3-letter words with short vowel sounds, but so far he hasn’t really “taken off” with reading.  He can recognize nearly all his numbers 1-9, and can do some very simple arithmetic, such as “If Paul has 3 apples and Hannah takes 1, how many does Paul have now?” etc.  His memory is still phenomenal.  I thought I was going to create short sentences for him to read, and I did make a little booklet of a lot of them.  Well, that only worked for about one or two lessons, because then he had everything memorized and would just recite them instead of reading them.  He remembers songs, sections of story books, and we’re working on memorizing the passage in Exodus 20 that has the 10 Commandments in it.

Something else I’ve noticed about Paul is he likes to play alone a lot of the time.  He is perfectly content to play by himself in the living room for a long time, or to play outside with his dump trucks and loader in the dirt for a long time by himself.  Even if we are around other kids, when it comes to playing with toys, he’d rather play by himself, it seems.  Now, to romp and run and tear around, he loves to do that with other people.  He is not anti-social by any means!

That’s our wonderful Paul.  We love him very much, and I sometimes think about our new baby, wondering if it’s a boy, how can any other son be as special and delightful as our Paul?  I guess we’ll find out!  God still works miracles.

That’s what I tell Paul and Hannah when we are going to Grandma’s now that she has moved to the Home.  I tell them we’re going to see Grandma in her new house.

Gail (along with Bobby), my dad, and I helped Grandma move into the Home on Tuesday (of last week).  Everything went really well.  Dad stayed with her for lunch that day.  Then, Andrew, Paul, Hannah and I went to eat lunch with her on Wednesday.  She seemed to be doing really well.  The food was excellent.  They put us in our own small dining room so we weren’t in the main crowd and could visit.

After our lunch, Andrew left to run some errands (we had traveled separately) and we went to Grandma’s room and looked at picture books of hers for just a little bit before coming home.

On Thursday, Gail and Bobby went and ate lunch with her.  On Friday we brought her out here to our house for supper.  We had a great meal of fish, scalloped potatoes, fresh rolls, green beans, and fresh peanut butter cookies.  It was a wonderful visit.  Our place is certainly busier and noisier than Grandma’s new house, but then, she could go to her place to rest when she was done here.  Grandma toured around our new addition on her own (with her Rolator), and Hannah really loved having her great-grandma here.  She showed her a book, doctored on her with her stethoscope, and in general was interacting with her (talking to her, giving her hugs) a whole lot of the time.

After supper, Grandma worked at peeling some hard-boiled eggs for me (to make stuffed eggs for a get-together with Andrew’s family on Saturday).  Hannah immediately started helping too, and soon Paul was helping to crack and peel the eggs.  Pretty soon, I had to stop putting supper food away and supervise Hannah and help.  We got the eggs peeled pretty quickly.  We all had a good time.

You’ll notice an extra light there.  It’s my sewing light.  I moved it there because Grandma’s vision isn’t real good and I was trying to help her out.

Around 8:15 Grandma said she was ready to go home.  I took her home while Andrew put Paul and Hannah to bed.

Grandma has basically said only positive things about staying there at the home.  The thing that it seems is her favorite is the baths in the Jacuzzi!  She really likes them and has described it in pretty good detail to us.  She also says she really likes the food, and she likes it that her meals are taken care of (she has not been able to cook for a little while now).  She said she has everything she needs and she feels secure there.

She said she’s had company every day and she’s been very busy.  She said she’s only turned on the TV once since she’s been there.  She also said she wanted to check out some of the activities that are going on there at the home.

It seems like things are going well for her.  I know we might not go visit and have her out for supper every week.  (I plan to make a great effort to go see her at least once a week.)  I just wanted to put forth a huge effort to make her first week and the transition go as well as it possibly could for her.  I thought part of helping it go smoothly would be some of us going to see her, letting her know that we weren’t putting her in the Home and then forgetting all about her.  As far as having her out to our house for supper so soon, I wanted to quickly dispel any thoughts that she might have (as she did initially) that once she walked through the doors of the Home, she was never coming back out again.  I wanted to show to her that yes, she could go out and do things, and that we were willing to come get her and bring her to our house.

So, that’s how our times with Grandma went this past week.  Our weekend has been very full and busy, so I haven’t even had a chance to call and check on her.   I plan to call her in the morning and see how she’s doing and when we should come visit this week.

In closing, here are some pictures of my favorite little people, just because I love them so much!

Paul holding a baby peep some
neighbor children brought over.

Hannah taking a mid-day snuggling session.
Those bean-bag chairs get some use!

I’m back this week, finally, for a Tiny Talk Tuesday post.  There is so much I want to blog about, but time has not permitted.  I also have so many neat pictures to share (along with their stories), but that too will have to wait until another time.  Now, it’s TTT time (and it is before mid-night!).

For Hannah’s birthday, one of her presents was a Jack-In-The-Box.  As she was playing it, it popped out and surprised her.  She said, “Whoaaaa…” and her voice started to escalate, and then she stopped, and turned to her daddy (who was right behind her and asked, “Can I scream?”  (Screaming is not allowed at our house, and we’ve been firm in teaching Hannah that.  I guess she remembered!)

Hannah “driving” Mr. Miller’s tractor.

***********************************

Two Sundays ago, while we were finishing up at church (we had packed a lunch and ate it there since there was nursing home ministry after church) and were the only ones there, Paul took a pretty good fall when some drawers he was getting toys out of fell over.  He bruised both the back and front of his head.  I was holding him, and he was crying.  Hannah repeatedly came up to him and hugged him saying, “I’m sorry I pushed you, Paul!”  I guess she thought if he was hurt and crying it must be her fault!  Hmmm….

One night Paul had me go out and get his cars–
this is where he had left them!

************************************

For a while, Paul kept randomly asking me, “Are you sick?” when I was perfectly healthy and doing normal things.  Finally, one day when he was asking that, after I told him I wasn’t sick, he said, “Well, Jesus won’t make your bumpie better.”  Then, I realized he was talking about the very slowly healing biopsy site on my leg.  (For a long time, Paul and Hannah asked to see it every day, and I told them Jesus was making it better.)  I guess Paul thought enough time had gone by and the bumpie was still there (a scab).  I assured him that Jesus would make it better and someday I wouldn’t have any more bumpies.

Paul is working, just like “the men”.

************************************

Last Friday night, after we left my grandmother’s house, we picked up Bobby, my sister Gail’s son, and brought him home with us to spend the night and Saturday.  On the way home, I asked him about baby Susannah (who was about 1 week old), whom he had gone to see the weekend before.  He said she was tiny.  Then he said, “She had skinny arms, just like you (indicating Paul, who was sitting beside him in the back seat)!”

Paul immediately stated, “No!  She has skinny arms like Susannah, not like me!”

There was quite a go-round back there as they argued, Bobby stating Susannah had skinny arms like Paul, and Paul denying that and saying she had skinny arms like Susannah (and sometimes he said Baby Miranda).  It was clear that Paul thought it was offensive to hear he had skinny arms!  (Bobby is a stout, solid fellow, and his arms can’t be construed as skinny.  Paul is a slight, limber, thin guy.)

Paul, Hannah & Bobby all wanted to sleep together.

Amazingly, they went right to sleep.  Must have
been the big pieces of cherry pie they had
for a snack just before bed. (It was also pretty
late.)

We are so very, very close to being finished with this addition project!  It’s so exciting.  I thought they had completely finished the inside, and then I found a piece of Formica lying beside my dish drainer and realized they have to glue that on the end of the counter beside our new dishwasher yet.  I want to put another coat of paint on the shoe molding in the bathroom yet (I think they planned to do it, but I’ll just do it for them), and then I think that is the end!  They are hoping to pour the concrete for the back porch on Monday, and if everything goes really well, finish smoothing the ground and plant the grass.  We can’t get the final inspection until the grass is seeded.  So, maybe, just maybe Monday will be the last day.  If not Monday, then hopefully Tuesday!

Andrew has been enjoying his new office.  I am anxious to get a little bit of time to get some things cleaned up and moved over.  The happenings with my grandmother have taken priority, so my end of the deal on our project is moving very slowly right now.  I did vacuum out the walk-in closet (shelves and floor) and the floor of the new bedroom tonight instead of exercising.  Andrew put up blinds everywhere.  You will notice they look rather, um, second rate.  Yeah, they were on their way to the dump when my sister rescued them, thinking we might be able to use them.  We’re really glad to have them because it’s saving us some money right now.  When we get all this paid off, maybe we’ll think about getting some blinds that aren’t bowed into a banana shape.  Until then, these will serve the primary intended purpose of blinds.

This is looking out into our 8-f0ot hallway
from the kitchen.  1st door –bathroom,
2nd door–bedroom,  the rest of the doors
go to two closets at the end of the hall.
If you look closely at the bottom of the
picture you can see where the floor changes
from vinyl to laminate.

This is looking into the new bathroom
from the hallway.

This is a corner of our bedroom (with the beautiful
oak floor, of course!).

This is turned around in our new bedroom
and looking back out towards the hall.

This is inside the walk-in closet on the
side with the bar.  It’s 8 feet deep and
5 feet wide.

This is the other side of the walk-in closet
with the shelves,  and the back of it
where we have two bars for hanging
shirts and short things.

This is looking into the new bathroom
from the new bedroom.  The door you see
opens into our existing bedroom.  You
might notice a towel bar is missing with
only part of the hardware up under the
top towel bar in this picture.  That’s thanks
to us buying towel bars from Wal-Mart.
Some of them were missing some screws.
After we take a trip to the hardware store
to buy more of the right screws, Andrew
can finish putting up this towel bar.

And that’s the extent of my pictures for tonight.  I piled the rest of the paint cans, tools, etc. in the “L” of the hallway that isn’t shown in these pictures.

You might notice the wooden outlet plates and switch plates.  There is a story behind those.  Sigh.  Away back whenever when they were putting up the frames for the walls, somebody went to town and bought about a thousand outlets, switches and covers for both.  We never gave it any thought, and evidently they didn’t either, but the person who was shopping got everything in beige (without consulting us).  Then, many moons later when it’s time to put the covers on, we realize they look goofy against our white walls.  Andrew and the guys talked and figured and tried to figure out what to do.  If we got white plates to match the walls, all the outlets and the toggles would look weird since they were beige.  They decided the least painful thing to do at this point was just use the beige covers and live with it.  I just couldn’t hardly abide having beige covers on my pretty white and blue (in the bathroom) walls!  I thought it would be an eye-sore.  Andrew realized it was important to me, and found some natural oak covers online for $5.99 each.  I thought it was a great idea, but I told him there was no way we were spending that much money just on aesthetics.  I could live with the beige ones (until I got a chance to go around and rip out all the outlets and switches and change the whole business over to white, which might be 10 years down the road).  Then, one night when I ran to Wal-Mart for some paint supplies, I ran through their switch-plate cover section, and what do you know!  They had natural, finished oak ones for $1.97 each!  I was thrilled and brought a sample home for Andrew.  We immediately agreed that that was the solution for our beige switches.  They match our flooring, and they mask the fact that the switches and outlets aren’t white.  (I know that’s still about 9 times more expensive than the regular, cheapest plastic plates, but it was a whole lot more do-able than $5.99 a plate!)  So, if you’re doing a building project such as this, make sure you know early on what color of walls you’ll have and make sure somebody gets the right color of switches and outlets.  (FYI, they got a beige tub/shower unit for us, and we didn’t realize it until way past too late.  We’re living with that one, and it’s not as obvious since it’s against a light blue wall and not a white one.  I don’t know why we were stupid enough not to think far enough ahead to go pick out our own tub/shower unit.  Learn from our mistake.)

Those details are minor.  We are happily enjoying our new addition!

The beginning of this week was the first I learned that my grandmother had decided to move to Bridgewater Home.  It’s not what she really wants (who wants to grow old and need care?), but she considers it the best thing for her to do at this point, and, probably she’s right.  Several of us have offered her alternatives, both in the past several months, and even now, but she thinks this is what she should do.  I’m glad she knows that it’s not her only option, and that different ones of us are more than willing to take her into our homes and adjust our lifestyles to take care of her.

She has been having “bad spells” for the past about 6 weeks, growing to what seems to be about one a week.  We just found out the results from a test, and these spells have been small strokes.  For over a month, my dad has been staying with her at nights and fixing her breakfast in the mornings.  The strokes so far have always occurred first thing in the morning.  She really doesn’t want to be alone anymore, day or night, and I can understand that, and I think it is necessary for someone to be with her.  So far, it doesn’t seem like any of the strokes have left permanent damage, however when they happen she is unable to walk, sometimes for a little while afterwards.

She is scheduled to move into the Home the beginning of the week.  I know it’s hard for her.  It’s really hard on me, and I can’t imagine how hard it is for her.  I’ve wanted so badly to go see her this week, to take my children up to see her in her home just one more time, and to take her a meal in her house just one more time.  Thankfully, tonight I was finally able to do it.

We had a wonderful meal of roast beef, mashed potatoes, gravy, fresh home-made bread, peas (her request), and blueberry pie (her favorite).  I trimmed her toenails (yes, I know they’ll do that for her at the Home, but I wanted to do it one more time), and then we picked out clothes for her to take and I marked them with her name and put them in the suitcase.  To say we had fun would be lying.  We did have a nice time, and I was really glad to do some small thing to help my grandma.

I guess what I really want in my selfish wanting is for Grandma to stay in the same health and mental capacity that she was 10 years ago.  But that’s not the way it goes, and Grandma has been no exception.  What Grandma really wants is to be welcomed to her heavenly home.  I know she is trying to be patient until God is ready for her.  So you can pray for all of us as we help Grandma enter this new chapter of life (and it’s a new chapter for the rest of us too).

It’s hard for me to believe that on Monday I’ll be 17 weeks into this pregnancy.  The weeks are just zooming by.  So very soon, I’ll be half way through.

We’re all doing fine, as far as we can tell.  I made some changes to my diet and have continued my exercise program, and my blood sugars are doing fine and my HbA1c came down from 6.5 to 5.8.  That made everyone happy.  I’m just staying the course, and hoping things continue to go well with the blood sugars.  My OB doctor says I do not have gestational diabetes, which was what he was concerned about initially.

Back in November I had developed a rash on my upper legs.  It was very bothersome and itched like poison.  I would wake up in the nights from it itching so badly, and wouldn’t be able to sleep for a while due to the itching.  My dermatologist PA told me it was just dry skin and to put lotion on it after showering.  Well, I knew it wasn’t dry skin, but I followed her directions with no improvements.  Then, I started slathering on the betamethasone cream that I was using on some other rashes.  I was desperate!  This had developed into big patches of large, raised welts.  Finally, I called for another appointment with the dermatologist, insisting on seeing the dermatologist and not the PA.  I got an appointment for the middle of April.  Later, when I showed it to the OB doctor, he said it wasn’t just dry skin, and that he’d call the dermatologist and see what he could do.  The dermatologist office called me that day with an appointment that very afternoon!!  (A-ma-zing.)  Anyway, after taking a biopsy and getting the results, lo and behold, it was something called a PUPPP rash (Pruritic Urticarial Papules and Plaques of Pregnancy).  It affects about 1% of pregnant women, usually in their first pregnancy, usually with twins, and it’s usually worse in the last trimester.  And, 70% of women who have a PUPPP rash have a boy.  It surprised everyone that this was a PUPPP rash because none of them had seen it this early in a pregnancy.  Note:  I’m not usual.  This isn’t my first pregnancy, there’s only one baby in there, and I’m not in my third trimester!  So, I doubt this will have much bearing on if we have a boy or a girl!  We’re all relieved it’s not a lupus rash, which was what my OB doctor was concerned about.  Also, in the last several weeks, the rash has slowly faded out, and I’m not having any problems with it right now.  Praise the Lord!

Right about the time I was at 15 weeks, I started to feel our baby move.  I was surprised, because I didn’t feel the others that early.   It’s a nice feeling, and I have paused to think at times that at some point in my life, I will never feel that fluttering inside me again.  That’s a sad thought right now.

I am looking forward to our new baby coming.  Even more so since my new niece was born on Thursday and I got to hold her briefly last evening.  Paul and Hannah are really looking forward to our new baby coming too.  They talk about it all the time.

I also know there will be a great big jolt to my life when this new baby arrives.  In the last year, I’ve gotten pretty used to my children sleeping well at nights (well, for Hannah, that has taken a little hiatus right now, but we’re working on that).  I’ve gotten used to just fixing one meal for all of us.  I’ve gotten used to eating hot foods warm and at the same time everyone else is eating.  I’ve gotten used to picking up and going to church or town or wherever without taking a couple hours to get ready, strategic planning so it’s in between feedings, etc.  I’ve also gotten used to not having a lot of crying going on most of the time.  I remember that babies cry a lot more than you think!  What I am already getting used to is the lower energy level and getting tired often (or being tired nearly all the time).  That set in at the beginning of the pregnancy, but it’s not quite as bad now in the second trimester as the first.  I also know that if we weren’t having major construction going on all the time, I would get an afternoon nap on more days that just on Saturday.

But, when I look back over the time since Paul and Hannah were born, that first really tough year of life seems so short, so fleeting, and the hard times grow dimmer.  Right now, Paul and Hannah are at such a fun, enjoyable stage.  I am loving this time so much that I am looking forward to experiencing it again with our new baby.  I am also so very much looking forward to watching Paul and Hannah enjoy our new baby.  Even when we were visiting new Susannah for just a brief time, Hannah was so delighted to “hold” her, and was spontaneously and naturally petting her and rubbing her.  Paul was commenting on her tiny feet and her tiny legs.  They were just enthralled with her.

After Paul was born, it was hard.  Just plain hard.  He wasn’t an “easy” baby, and so much of everything was up-hill all the way, it seemed.  I was expecting the same thing with Hannah, but everything was only half as hard with her.  Sure, she was bigger when she was born and didn’t have some of the same hardships Paul had with being born a little early, but a lot of it was also that I wasn’t making 75 decisions every single day for the very first time and having to figure it all out.  (Crying.  Is he hungry?  Does he have a burp?  Does he just need to go to sleep?  Is his diaper dirty?  And all those check negative and he’s still crying and what am I doing wrong and why isn’t this working????)  Somehow with Hannah I just knew what to do, and it just worked a whole lot better.  Not that I always made the right decision, but everything was much easier.  So, I am waiting to see if baby number three is even easier than baby number two!

Another thing, I’ve done my duty to reduce mass at the landfill.  I’ve done all I need to try to be like my mom (and I’m not, so just give that up).  I don’t plan to use cloth diapers unless we get absolutely destitute.  I know it’s a crime.  I know it’s a shame.  I know it’s like throwing cash in the trash to use disposable diapers.  But I’m going to be tired.  As in tired, very tired.  And that’s one thing that I’m giving up.

Well, I guess this is a pretty long commentary on 17 weeks.  Now you know the scoop.

Oh, you can put your guess for a boy or a girl in the comments.  We should find out which it is on April 2nd!

No, we haven’t reached the celestial gates!  Andrew has had his first day of work up out of the basement and in the new office!  He had Luke help him haul up the desk last night.  He’ll move in the rest of the stuff after the final inspection, which may be on Tuesday.  I had to take some pictures of the first day in the new office.

Isn’t the floor beautiful?

Doesn’t this look much better and more comfortable
than the refrigerated basement? I think he had his
first warm day of programming in a long time!

O.k., there aren’t any sinks in the office.  I just wanted to show off some nice parts of the bathroom that are coming together enough to take pictures of.  I picked out these nice higher faucets so you don’t have to feel cramped and in a tight hole when you’re washing your hands.  Also so hopefully I can fill the baby bathtub from them.

This is the beautiful vinyl floor in our bathroom.  The bathroom wall is a light blue.  The vinyl has little blue flowers in the corners of the squares.  We had originally picked out something else, but when the flooring place went to order it, they found out that pattern had been recently discontinued.  So, we sighed and went to look at more samples.  Now, we are glad we didn’t get what we picked at first because we like this one so much better!  (Yes, it is obvious that our bathroom is under construction–all the tools and wood shavings on the floor.)

That’s the name of our new niece!  Isn’t that just a wonderful, feminine, sweet name?  She looks like her mommy, and she is so beautiful!  The pictures don’t do her justice.  We went to see her this evening, and she is even more beautiful in person than in the pictures.  You’ll just have to see for yourself when you get a chance to meet her.

Fortunately, the hospital where she was born lifted their ban on people under 18 being allowed to visit on Wednesday, so we were able to take Paul and Hannah and visit little Susannah for a bit this evening.  I kept an eye on my watch, and I think we were there in the room just under 20 minutes.  I had assured Miriam we were only going to be there 15 or 20 min. maximum, because I well remember how tired a mom can be after having a baby.

We all washed our hands before we went in the room, and we all got to hold this precious baby a little bit.

I’m sorry this is blurry, but it’s the only one I’ve
got of Paul holding her.

Right after we got there, Paul showed Susannah the
doll he brought along, and the balloon he was giving
her, and here he is showing her Ramone and
Lightning McQueen.  I think Susannah rates very
highly with Paul & Hannah.

She’s so wonderful, and she has a great set of parents.  Now, I am really looking forward to when our new baby arrives!

(Does anybody know how many times you can stop for the bathroom when traveling with two small children?  We made the mistake of giving them cups of water at the beginning of the trip (it takes 2 1/2 hours to get there).  I think we broke some records.  Fortunately, we had the little potty along and could just pull off the road and sit them on it there in the car.  It would have taken much longer if we had had to go into a gas station each time.)

I wish I had more pictures of this event.  I should have given the camera to one of my siblings and instructed them to take pictures.  I was so busy serving the food and tending our small birthday celebrators that I didn’t get many pictures.  Andrew did get some video footage of the candle-blowing part.

We invited Gail & James and Bobby (one of Paul & Hannah’s favorite little people) for supper, along with my parents and everyone up on the ranch (Katie, Luke, Glen and my grandmother).  (So that makes it a 12-person supper.  I opted to keep things pretty simple.)

Our menu was, once more, some of Hannah’s favorite foods.  I did a ham in the crock pot, green beans boiled with a ham bone (from a previous ham, not this one), mashed potatoes and gravy.  If I had had more energy, I would have made fresh rolls, but I didn’t.  If I was making a trip to town, I would have gotten some brown ‘n’ serve rolls, but I wasn’t going to town.  I decided we didn’t need any bread.  Then, about an hour before the meal, I decided to pull a loaf of my frozen homemade bread out of the freezer and serve it with butter and jam.  And you know, they ate nearly the entire loaf!  I’m glad I got it out.  Even if freezer bread isn’t quite as good as fresh, it must have been alright for this group!

Right after this picture I stopped taking pictures for a while because somehow Hannah and her chair fell over and she needed comforting.  Bobby gave her a pretty night gown (he picked it out himself, Gail said), Aunt Gail & Uncle James and Bobby gave her a doll stroller, and Aunt Wendy gave her a doll stroller.  (That is perfect, because Paul and Hannah have been pushing dolls and cars in circles around the island all day long today whenever we’ve been home.  I have to set the timer and they trade strollers each time it goes off.  Otherwise they fight over the strollers!)  We also gave her the cat bean bag chair, which all the kids liked.  Paul especially likes the “squishy ball”, which is what he calls the ball of yarn on the bean bag chair.

Katie and my grandmother.

Right about the time we were ready to eat, my mom got a call on her cell phone that our newest family member had been born–on Hannah’s birthday!  My sister Miriam and her husband Daniel had a little girl named Susannah Faith!  I was so, so happy, and to delighted she was born on Hannah’s birthday.  Paul and Hannah have been waiting for “George” (her code name) for a long time.  I tried to explain to Hannah that George had been born, but he was really a girl and her name was Susannah.  Paul and Hannah are still having a hard time getting a hold of that, especially that she is a girl.  Paul has the Susannah part down, but he refers to her with masculine pronouns.  So, Susannah and Hannah have the same birthday!

And now, one of the major birthday items…the cake!  Paul has been asking Hannah and suggesting to her for a week or more the things she wants on her birthday cake.  Lightning McQueen, a cat, a duck, a flower, and countless other things.  Hannah heartily agreed to each thing.  She would need a large cake with a whole lot of unrelated characters on if I used all of the things she said she wanted over the last 2 weeks!

I made the cake a few days earlier and put the caramel icing on and then stuck it in the freezer.  I know it would have looked a little better with a white background, but caramel icing on chocolate cake is almost good enough to die for, and it’s what I was hungry for, so that’s what I used.  (Even though I’ve gotten to eat very little of it on this diabetic diet, I still wanted others to enjoy the great cake.)  I decorated it while the kids were napping on Thursday.

Those are two pink balloons, by the way, not
lollipops!  Hannah loves balloons.

When Hannah woke up, she enjoyed standing on
a chair and admiring the finished product for a
long time.  I don’t go for the practice of not letting
the birthday person look at the cake until it’s time
to blow out the candles.  Then they don’t get to
see it but a moment or two until it’s all cut up
and eaten.  I like for them to oooo and ahhhh
over it a long time first.

Andrew wanted me to put cotton candy on it, so
I did right before we lit the candles.  I was afraid
it would draw moisture and dissolve if I put it on
too long ahead of time.

Hannah loved the cake.  And, that is a kitten on the cake, in case anyone didn’t figure it out yet!