Birthday Madness

I didn't mean to take a blogging hiatus, but when you're under the weather, you just don't feel like doing much. I started feeling gross at the end of my work day on Thursday. Friday I was feeling worse, Saturday I wanted to curl up in a ball. But could I? No way! I had a birthday party to attend!

Mr Man turned 6 on Saturday! My little St Patty's baby he is and here's a little glimpse into what I remember each time his birthday approaches.

March 16 around 1pm I started to feel twinges that didn't feel like they were going away. I kind of freaked out, I mean, baby wasn't due for another month.. but alas, I called my doula. Her advice? Sleep. If they were still there, I was in labour. If they went away, it was just practice. I slept for about 45 minutes and awoke to stronger contractions. Eep.

I picked Chef Husband up at 5, insisted I was ok to drive despite contractions (I think he was more than a little freaked out), and continued on. By 10pm, we were headed to our first hospital. I had been in a Shared Care program where it was hospital based but run by midwives. We knew that Mr Man was a footling breach so I wouldn't be able to deliver vaginally in Edmonton, and given he was a month early, things weren't really going according to plan. The midwife let me know I was 3cm and arranged for a transfer to a hospital.

On to hospital #2. The OB could feel his toes through the bulging water sack and I was prepped for surgery. Mr Man was pulled out at 1:12am. He wasn't breathing, he was blue, and he needed to be resuscitated and bagged. Over the next few hours I saw him for 5 short minutes while they tried to keep his levels of oxygen manageable. Eventually at 6am, the paramedic NICU team arrived and transferred him to another hospital. I only followed 12 hours after that.

He was a fighter from the beginning, my little man, and he was named after a Roman Soldier as a result. At 7 pounds, 5 ounces, he looked nothing like a preemie, but on the inside, he wasn't quite ready to be born. It was a tough go at the beginning for us, and he still has some lasting lung issues, but overall, he's still a fighter. He's sensitive, kind, compassionate, brilliant, funny, and kind of quirky in his own way. And above all, he's perfect. He's my perfect little first born.

And my little dude has a serious affinity for all things prehistoric. Some kids go through a dinosaur phase. My kid IS a dinosaur phase. He's been loving dinosaurs since he was 2 and could say T-rex. He knows the names of more dinosaurs than I can count, has met a paleontologist at our local museum, has been on dinosaur camps, and this year when I asked what he wanted his cake to be answered with "I think you already know mom. Obviously it's going to be a dinosaur cake." Well, son, you're right, I should have known.

So a dinosaur cake I made. Have allergies or food restrictions doesn't mean you don't get to have good cake. It just means you have to know how to bake one, and how to have a little fun with colour.

And so I present you with the birthday cake step by step.

 Assembling the cake took a lot of icing. 7 cups actually. I make my own - I find the store bought ones full of yucky stuff and wayyyyy to fake sweet for my liking. My icing is just vegan gluten free butter, icing sugar, rice milk and vanilla. And it tastes amazing. I loved making the little Jurassic Forest complete with watering hole, and Mr Man loved it. I had many compliments from parents (you can't entirely see the height of it, but it's the equivalent of 4 layers of cake in the back) including some from other bowling lanes that came over to see it. It's not mind blowing - I'm not a cake decorator, but I'm pleased as punch with how it turned out and how happy Mr Man was too!

All the kids gobbled it up without asking any questions - as did the parents! Gotta love when no one knows something is gluten free.. :)