Tag: Lily

Posted on

A Tale of Five Birthday Cakes

Yesterday we held our family Birthday Bash for Lily, who turned five last week. I like to bake and decorate a cake for the girls’ birthdays, since I have fond memories of my mom making my birthday cake. (I just use cake mix and store-bought frosting; don’t get too excited!) Lily’s very first cake was a flower cake; the frosting was a little bumpy and uneven, and it definitely didn’t look like a bakery cake. Lily was a very finicky eater when she was one, and she didn’t like her fingers to get messy. She wouldn’t even touch the cake, much less eat it! We tried to put her finger in the frosting, but she wanted NOTHING TO DO WITH CAKE!

For Lily’s second birthday, she wanted a party that was all about doggies. I made a cake with chocolate dog bones on it, and she was quite different about eating cake now that she was two. In fact, she really got “into” helping me decorate her cake.

For Lily’s third birthday, I kept the cake simple. I made her another flower cake, and decorated it with three ladybugs. We sang to her and she blew out the candles on her cake in the family room so that Ed’s mom could join in the fun, since she wasn’t able to walk up the stairs to our dining room. Having her cake on a TV tray didn’t bother Lily one bit!

I finally attempted to make my own frosting for Lily’s fourth birthday. I made an easy lemon glaze, but I was really unhappy with how it looked. Lily wanted a My Little Pony on her cake; more specifically, Minty. I used store bought frosting for the pony, and even though I didn’t like the glaze, at least it tasted yummy! (And I thought I drew a pretty decent pony.)

This year, Lily turned FIVE, and so was very specific about what she wanted on her birthday cake. She wanted a butterfly cake with a picture of Buddy the T-Rex from Dinosaur Train on top, AND she wanted to decorate the cake BY HERSELF. I finally convinced her that a butterfly cake would be great, and we didn’t need to put Buddy on top. I helped fill in the body of the butterfly, and I was going to smooth out the purple wings, but then I realized it was HER cake, and it was beautiful just the way it was.

I think she was pretty happy with her beautiful butterfly birthday cake!

Posted on

Fifth of November

Before I was married, before I was even dating her Daddy, I knew I wanted her.

In 1999, I needed to have some uterine fibroids removed surgically, and this surgery guaranteed that I would need to have a Cesarean section if I ever became pregnant.

I started dating Ed, married him, and in 2004 I was pregnant with Lily.

I had an easy pregnancy; no morning sickness or other aches and pains. Ed never fails to remind me of one whole week when smells bothered me. I cooked dinner one night and had to run out of the house because the smell was so horrid. I made myself a peanut butter and jelly sandwich while tormenting Ed. “How can you eat that disgusting food?” I asked him. It smelled and tasted just fine to him.

My C-section was scheduled for November 15. On the morning of November 5, Ed left at 6:00 for work as usual, while I slept in. I woke up with cramps. I called Ed, and he came home. The cramps stopped. I called the doctor’s office anyway. I already had an appointment scheduled for 11:00, and the nurse said I could wait until then. Ed went outside to rake leaves and clean up the lawn; it was a beautiful fall day, and was the last day of leaf pickup for the year.

We went to the doctor’s office, and I was hooked up to a fetal monitor. When the nurse looked at it, she said, “Here’s a contraction!” I had no idea I was having contractions; they were so mild.

Since the doctor didn’t want to risk me going into labor as my uterus might rupture along the old scar tissue, he told us, “You’re having a baby today!”

Words cannot describe the joy we felt when we saw our little Lily for the first time. I burst into tears when the doctor said, “It’s a girl!” We were unprepared to have a baby that day; we didn’t have a camera or an overnight bag with us. No one in our family knew we had gone to the hospital to have a baby that day, so we had no visitors. I had always wanted to have a natural birth, so the surprise of Lily’s arrival was wonderful despite the need for the C-section.

That first, precious day when we became a family of three holds a special place in my heart. Happy birthday, Lily!