Yarn Letters

While poking around the internet for first birthday ideas, I found a diy project involving yarns and letters. Basically you just take letter blocks and wrap them completely in yarn for a nice rustic look. Pretty easy.

Here's a sneak preview for Max's birthday. There are other diy projects in the works (nothing major). Monkey will be arriving next Saturday to help with the sweat shopping. Can't wait!!

I'm also torn on what kind of cake to bake. Should I go traditional yellow cake with chocolate frosting? Or Black Forest Cake which I LOVE, but might not be appropriate for a child's birthday? Dilemmas dilemmas....

Baby State of Affairs: 11 months

Thank goodness Baby Burrito is almost 100% better. It's been a week since the roseola rash first started and it's mostly gone now. I'm sure by Monday it'll have disappeared completely and his beautiful skin will be once again perfectly snowy white.

I'm a couple weeks behind on this update. Since the 11 month mark, I've dropped the morning pump/feed and am now just feeding him right before bed. I'm probably not producing that much milk but I'd like to continue until the end of the month before stopping altogether. He's still drinking about 25 oz of milk (formula + breastmilk) a day I think, and eating 3x a day (fruit meal, veggie meal, and oatmeal).

He sleeps like a champ. When my mom is here, he takes 2 naps during the day. On the weekends, he tends to take just 1 nap, maybe because we take him around more and the day is busier for him. At night, he sleeps 12 hours. No walking yet, but he enjoys standing around and throwing his toys out of the play pen. Notice the pile of toys below.



He's still a damn good natured baby. Very silly.

I'm currently planning his first birthday party which is coming up at the end of the month. I can't believe it's been almost a full year since he was born! Amazing.

Poor Baby

Ack, the rash got worse! Here's day 3 of the rash. I'm not really sure why I'm posting this. It's mostly just to document in case this happens again in the future.

Hopefully things will look better tomorrow...

Roseola

AHHH Baby Burrito has baby measles!! I have no idea how he contracted this given that he's been home all week with Ah Ma. Badge and I take him on short walks when we get home from work but we don't take him out of the stroller. It's really a puzzle where he picked this up.

Nevertheless, Big Baby Burrito Head woke up with a fever on Friday. It lasted all day despite the tylenol we gave him. It was gone Saturday morning only to be replaced by a red rash that slowly spread all over his body. After some frantic googling, I decided Roseola was the likely culprit. Also known as "baby measles" (not to be confused with normal measles which I guess is much more serious), Roseola starts with a high fever usually lasting 3-5 days. Once the fever clears, a pink or red rash appears for several days. Aside from the fever, the baby usually seems otherwise healthy, i.e. no runny nose, cough, or congestion. Although Max only had a fever for 1-1.5 days, he seemed to follow this pattern. No cold symptoms, currently covered in an unsightly rash. We called the nurse on call at the hospital and she agreed that it sounded like Roseola. Not much to do except wait it out.




The rash doesn't seem so bad in these pictures but it's really much more red in person. Poor Little Man looks diseased. At least he doesn't seem to notice. That's all that matters. To recovery!

Strawberry Cream Cake

Last weekend, we were invited to my boss's house for a BBQ/pool party. I made Strawberry Cream Cake, a recipe I had previously made a couple years ago and forgotten. It was just as delicious as I remember. Light but creamy. Great summer dessert.

Unfortunately, Baby Burrito was in LA at the time so we didn't get to bring him to the party. Too bad because he would have loved to be in the water. Nevertheless, there was much delicious food and alcohol to be had. Here's to summer!