Birthday Boy!

I can't believe my baby boy will be a year old tomorrow! To celebrate his birthday, I made him a Birthday Boy onesie to wear out to breakfast and to stroll around the Farmer's Market. I intended to iron on the fabric and then stitch around it with a really beautiful variegated thread. When I had time to get this project done while Ari took his afternoon nap (it took 2 hours to get him to sleep--come on teeth! Just come in already!) I realized I had bought "No Sew HeatnBondUltrahold." Oh well, that made it all the easier to cut out the number from a scrap of fabric and just iron it on. OK, I'll admit that I cut the number out facing the wrong direction 3 times, but that's Kandyce's fault. She was making me keep her pregnant self company on the phone.

I admit that I love how this little shirt came out so much, I just might go crazy and start adding iron-ons to everything. Kind of like when Kandyce and I were in junior high school and she went nuts with puffy paint. Nothing in her room was safe!

When my sweet little boy woke up, daddy was home to play while I ran to the store. I couldn't resist this gorgeous bunch of flowers that the grower had just brought in to our local co-op. Fresh cut flowers are new to our co-op and I love how the grower is using repuporsed tin cans as well as funky assorted coffee cups. These flowers are to celebrate our birthing day, particularly today, the day before Ari's actual birth. We had planned a homebrith and ended up having to have a C-section, but our most vivid memories are from the days we labored at home. This day last year I was laboring in a tub in my kitchen when my husband brought in a perfect flower from our garden to help my visualize opening up for birth. I think a tradition was started today: I think I'll always splurge on flowers the day before Ari's birthday.

Finally, what's a birthday--or night before a birthday even--without cupcakes?! Since his Grammy made them for him special and sent them overnight, how could we not let him have the pleasure of holding one himself so he could just lick off that wonderful icing. Of course, mommy and daddy had to taste one first to make sure they're alright. They're delicious and thankfully, we have more. Since Ari loves pumpkin, my mom made him Pumpkin Patch cupcakes from the new Martha Stewart's Cupcakes book. Definitely worth a try if you're craving a not-too-sweet, gingery cupcake. I have to mention that I'm obsessed with another book my mom just gave to my sister and I called Babycakes. The book has all kinds of "Vegan, Gluten-free, and (Mostly) Sugar-Free Recipes" that are irresistible and you'll eat it up visually as well. Ari likes me to read it to him while he's eating lunch. "Once there was a baker named Erin and she had lots of different colored bowls to hold her ingredients..." He's enthralled and you will be too.