March

So again, I have neglected my blogging for about a month. Not much has really happened. I have had to make a LOT of cakes lately. One for a very special 3-year-old boy named Aiden. Normally Aiden's mom requests a shamrock cake every year, because his birthday is very close to St. Patrick's Day, but this year, she decided to go for a Mickey Mouse-themed party. Luckily for me, they make Mickey Mouse pans. Shaped pattern pans are truly the best for me as far as decorating goes, so this cake went very well for me.

I also made various birthday cakes and a shower cake for a co-worker's baby shower (a teddy bear shaped pan). Then came the robot cake for my nephew Noah. I can't believe he is 7 years old! The robot examples I found online used candy and donuts for the pieces and parts of the cake, and Noah was really excited to have donuts and cake together! I think I definitely hit the sugar quota in this cake, and the kids were all really excited to get pieces of candy with their cake.

Finally, my sister-in-law requested a WWE cake for her nephew Landyn for his 8th birthday. This presented the most significant challenge for me, because he wanted it to have a WWE championship belt, which has a lot of detail to it. I knew I wouldn't be able to replicate all of the detail work, but I used the pictures below to come up with a cake for him. The picture doesn't show it, but I used fondant, which I painted with gold dust, and texturized the center badge to make it look like authentic gold. I was really worried about this cake because I have no idea what the WWE belts really look like and I didn't want to miss any key elements, but I think it turned out pretty well.

Baby #2 is doing great! It is moving around in there quite a bit these days. Sometimes it wakes me up in the morning with little knocks on my belly. I love feeling each kick, and Duane can even see him/her moving in there now. He has felt the baby kick a couple of times, and he is very excited to meet the baby. We had our 20-week ultrasound on March 16th. It was really exciting, but the ultrasound tech would not let us take video. She said she would give us all the photos we wanted. The ultrasound itself was great. I could identify the baby's parts on my own at times. I could see the baby's eyes and mouth and even counted the fingers on one of its hands at one point. We held strong in not finding out the gender, and the ultrasound tech told us to look away when we got to that part. She did use a pronoun for the baby at one point, but we aren't sure if that was a generic pronoun, so we are basically calling it nothing. She informed us that she wouldn't put the gender in the chart either, because there was nothing wrong with the sex organs, so there was no need for the doctor to be alerted. So I guess the only one who knows for sure is the tech (and God of course!).

But at the end of the ultrasound, the tech only gave us four pictures, and three of them were really blurry. It was very discouraging, because the ultrasound itself was so clear, and Rachel's 20-week ultrasound pictures were so much better than these, and I don't want our second baby to feel short-changed one day when we look back at the pictures. Even the nurse practitioner admitted the photos the tech had given me were not very good. So I scheduled a 3D/4D ultrasound with an independent ultrasound place, which I had been hesitant to do because we are worried about finding out the gender. However, the woman assured me that they are very careful to respect the wishes of parents who do not want to learn the gender, so I thought this would be a great way to give Rachel a chance to see the baby before it is born too.

I also decided to send some feedback to the doctor's office, because I was very discouraged about this ultrasound experience, and I learned that a couple of my friends who go to the same doctor also had a negative experience. So I sent some feedback via the internet form, just generally expressing my disappointment.

I received a call this week from the office offering me a complimentary ultrasound to get some better pictures. They claim the ultrasound machine at that particular office has been having trouble for a while, and they encouraged me to attend the other office. They even offered a 3D ultrasound this time. My appointment was supposed to be Thursday (March 31st), but when I arrived, the waiting room was packed, and I could tell there would be a long wait. Apparently the doctor has been using the machine for a while, so I was the seventh person in line for the tech. I rescheduled for this Thursday (April 7th). I am really eager to go, but I have to be very careful to have the technician hide the gender from me.

On the name front, we have a girl name picked out, but we have decided not to share names before the baby is born. We want to introduce our new baby to our families when they meet him/her for the first time. We are close on a boy name, but Duane is still searching for an Italian boy's name that I actually like. Strange that I (the Italian one in the relationship) don't like any of the Italian boy names. We are pretty sure we have the middle name, but it hinges on the first name, of course.

Rachel is doing really well. Her speech is very clear now, and she is starting to take some interest in the potty, though she still hasn't really gone on the potty. She talks to my belly and pats it sometimes. She tells the baby she loves it. I am not sure she knows what is coming, but I think she will be a great big sister.

Things are busy for both of us on the work front. Duane is traveling a lot for work, and his motorcycle racing season is fast approaching, which means 1-2 weekends a month on my own. It also means baby will be here before we know it! I bought coming home outfits of both genders!

So maybe there has been more going on than I realized...