Cake Alert!!

I know the pics are below as well but redundancy is fun so head to www.theatomiccakeco.blogspot.com to see pics.

It's not a party until someone spits up.

So, we had a birthday party for Kimchi this weekend. Obviously, it was my first stab at hosting a kid's birthday party. I am always stressed out when I entertain because I want everyone to have fun and this was no exception. We don't have a mansion, so space was a big issue and I was freaking out about not having enough places to sit and enough food and whatever but in the end, it all worked out. We had lots of kids here and I got to meet my friend's little baby who is ADORABLE and Max's little friend Louie, who is also from Korea, came to see him and I think everyone had a chance to interact with him at some point. Here he is chilling with his homies:

He did really well despite missing a nap and remained pretty agreeable all day. The $20 I slipped him before the party must have done the trick.

The first birthday is a mucho big dealo in Korea, mostly because it wasn't too long ago that kids may not make it to their first birthday, and there are a few traditions and rituals that we wanted to honor. I was supposed to pray to a mountain god and eat a white rice cake on his actual birthday, but I had no cake and I don't know any mountain gods, so that one we kinda skipped over. In Korea, they rent out halls and have these big parties called tols (or dols) and they are like mini wedding receptions with lots of food and even an MC. This is big business, people. Our's was quite a bit smaller but we did have rice cakes and kimchi for our guests to try. (A funny side note with the kimchi. I bought it at a Korean grocery and when I opened it, you could smell it from a mile away and everyone was like "eww, that stinks like hot garbage" but when I put it out, the brave people to try it were like "THIS IS DELICIOUS!" See, don't judge a fermented cabbage dish by it's smell. Well, maybe you should. Anyway...) The main things we wanted to make sure we did were to put his little outfit on him and have him choose from The Tray of Destiny. That's not the official name but I like it so I'm keepin' it.

The outfit was given to us by his foster mom, and while it was 4 sizes too big, he looked so cute in it I wanted to EAT HIM. See:

After his costume change, we brought him to the tray and he was supposed to choose from the following:

pencil - he will be a scholar

ruler - he will work with his hands

money - he will be wealthy

thread - he will have a long life

rice cake - he will have many children

Here's how it all went down:

Here I am as he is GOING FOR THE MONEY and then after he picks. Clearly, I am happy.

Good boy! I mean, whatever makes him happy is all that matters. Yeah, sure.

Anyway, on to the really important part, THE CAKE. I keed, I keed. Making his cake was also stressful because I have way too many things to choose from and my brain was on overdrive so I ended up going with a classic standby, the robot. More specifically, a birthday bot. I made it in panels dusted with a silver dust to make it look kinda metallic and then I added "welds" at all the seams. I still have the head left sitting on my counter. It was chocolate with vanilla filling and it was oh so delicious.

Here we are singing to him. He had no clue what the hell we were doing yet he was intoxicated by all the attention to the point that he forgot he still had his hat on. He hated that hat and yet the hat made everyone clap so VIVA LA HAT.

I hope we did his Korean heritage proud and I'm excited to be able to send these pics to his foster mom so she can see her gift put to good use. I hope everyone had fun because we sure did.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KIMCHI!!!!!!!!

So, today is a big day in our house. Today, Max turns 1!! I sang him "Happy Birthday" a few times but he was more interested in squishing his cheerios into the puddle of apple juice on his tray than he was in listening to me warble to him. Ungrateful. Anyway, it got me thinking about his mom and how a year ago she was having this beautiful baby boy that she was going to give up to strangers and how scary that must have been. I don't know much about her so maybe I'm projecting but either way, I am eternally grateful to her. A year ago I was in school and had no clue about the future and my main concern was graduating. Now, my main concern is making sure this little bugger makes it through each day. How things change.

Max at birth.

Max today (3/25/09), his first birthday!!

It's also bittersweet because it reminds me that a whole year of his life has passed and we have only been in it for a little over 3 months. He had a whole other life for 9 months in a different country with a different language and different parents who watched him go from a wee newborn to an active little spitfire. I remember walking down the street in Seoul, trying to read signs to get to the agency to meet him and getting lost and being so nervous that he wouldn't like us and then when we met him, well, I can't even describe how it felt. That seems like a million years ago because now he is 10000% our kid for sure. He farts like daddy and he's goofy like mommy and I can't wait to watch him grow even more and become a little man.

Happy birthday, buddy. Mommy and daddy love you very much.

Cake Alert!!

So, last week was ridiculous. I had three, THREE, complicated cakes for the weekend and was going out of my brain. I was really excited to do them all because they were fun themes and that makes it fun to do. I was going to post about it during the week, but one of the cakes was for my friend Rob's birthday and I didn't want to spoil the surprise. His cake was a Rush (the band, not the blowhard) themed cake and I made the band out of fondant. It was tricky and I went through two Geddy Lee's before it was all said and done but in the end, it was worth every second. He was really excited and seemed to really love it. The second cake was a photo album for 60 people, which is a pretty big cake to handle. I don't do many cakes over 30-40 servings so this was a nice challenge. It was a 75th birthday cake and I did "polaroids" of the birthday lady's various jobs and things through her life. A "this is your life" theme, if you will. The little polariods turned out really cute and I was happy and the recipient was happy so that's what matters. It wasn't as wackadoodle as many of them and it was nice to have an opportunity to do something a little more simple and elegant. I hope they all enjoyed it.

Last but not least, was a baby shower cake that was some gifts with a baby on it. It was tres adorable and I was really pleased. It was also less whack, more modern than normal and I was happy to do it. As usual, check out the pics at http://www.theatomiccakeco.blogspot.com/

Chao.

PS: I forgot to add that Max decided to add the the stressful FUN TIMES last week by whacking me in the eye with the remote control, giving me a nice shiner. Super awesome.

Next, we'll learn complex math.

So, one of my favorite parts of having a kid is watching him learn to talk. This is something that has always been lacking in my relationships with my pets. As hard as I tried, they just never picked it up. The kid, however, is quite smart and learns quickly. The best part of him talking is that he usually shouts what he's saying and he has a little angry man voice in this wee tiny Asian baby body. He spent the first few weeks only saying "dada" but now it's all "mama" and it's actually more like "MA MA" and it's really cute. See?

Walk the plank, matey!

So, it's been a little crazy here at Kimchi Central. Just when things get too boring, something comes along to shake it up. Last week was um, how shall I say, difficult. The kid is getting more and more comfortable with us, which is REALLY GOOD, but it also means he is feeling like he can test us and he did not disappoint. We learned temper tantrum, standing up in the cart at the grocery store, throwing everything he picks up, etc. By Friday, I was DONE and thankfully, his mood was much better over the weekend. We went to a fish fry Friday night, took him to lunch with Auntie Laura on Saturday and had brunch guests over on Sunday. There was a lot of fun and a lot of food and he was really good the whole time. For the most part anyway. He is also pretty much walking and we took video. He is so cute it makes me want to bite something.

Sorry the video is a bit shaky. As soon as he sees the camera, his primary goal becomes getting it in his grubby hands and then we can kiss it goodbye. Watching him walk is so cute because he's getting confident and he'll crack himself up while he's doing it. So funny. I can't believe it, but he will be a year old in just 10 days!! It's so weird to think that he's only been here for about 13 weeks because it seems like he's always been here. He's made such a remarkable adjustment in that short of time and I am SO EXCITED about his birthday. I have a kick-ass cake planned, we've got his Korean costume all ready and we're getting all the traditions together so we can do this the right way. It should be awesome.

Par-TAY!

Pisces, 3/10/09

Many manufacturers sell cleaning products in concentrated form. Once they bulked their products up to make them seem better value. Now there are more sophisticated, green-leaning markets. They pack more of a punch in a smaller container and hope that their customers will remember to use the contents more sparingly. And if they don't? Well, as long as they can't do harm by employing too much of the substance, why should the makers worry? You are doing the right thing now. What someone else makes of it is their problem.

You know, my horoscopes have SUCKED lately. They aren't good or bad, they're just dumb. I think his celestial antennae is whacked out. What the hell does this mean to me?

So, last weekend I took a cake to a birthday party for my friend's daughter. It was a really cute cake and she seemed to love it. Here we are at the party:

Max likes to go on cake deliveries with us. No, he doesn't really but I tell myself that he does. I also tell myself that he loves to go visit clients with me during the day which I also think is untrue but I am MOLDING HIS MIND so it's all okay. He is wearing his Lost Dharma shirt that his Auntie Laura bought him in those pictures. It's super cute. So is he so it works out.

Cake Alert!

Check out www.theatomiccakeco.blogspot.com to see a doggone cute cake from this weekend.

King of the Farters

So, my kid is pretty funny. He routinely cracks us up, even though he still can't talk but he just does funny stuff and tries to imitate us. Well, we are always giving him raspberries or whatever it is when you shove your face in their belly and blow a fart noise. Anyway, he likes to give them back and it is some funny shit. Enjoy.

Lost Recap

Wow. I mean, WOW. No, I mean SHAMWOW. I know every episode can't be the greatest thing ever and while last night wasn't the best I've ever seen, it filled in MAJOR pieces of our puzzle. Let's chat...

So, now we know that time has caught up. It seems as though when John turned the wheel, he also reset the time issue. He left the island and suddenly was three years in the future. I assumed that the losties would still be in the past when the other losties made it back to the island, but now we know that three years has passed for them as well. Three years living in 1974!!! This back in time business is not my favorite, I will be honest. However, as long as they make it back to real time at some point (I'm talking to you, Lost producers) I'm okay with this. FOR NOW. Anyway, we also know why we saw Faraday when they were drilling. Speaking of which, what happened to him? Halfway through the episode, he kinda disappeared. Weird. He is messed up now for sure and I was intrigued when he said "whatever happens, happened" after the last flash that set them back for good. Does that mean that this war we've been hearing about happened or does it just mean that whenever they were, that's where they were staying. Does this also mean that the entire plane jumped back in time, or is it just our losties? I'm inclined to think they all did, but we'll have to wait and see. Aside from this time business and establishing that three years had indeed passed, there wasn't much else that happened. Here are some tidbits:

-Juliette helped deliver a baby that lived, so whatever causes them to die isn't at play at this point. We also never heard the child's name, which I found to be suspect. What is it exactly that makes the babies die?

-Sawyer looks hot after he showers and stops being a hillbilly and I love him and Juliette together. I'm glad they did that. I found it interesting that she was so much happier there than she was before, even though she is still trapped. Is it because she is there of her own free will or has she just decided that it's not so bad after all? Why is it different now?

-Ben should be getting to the island very soon. He came around age 10, and he should be about there now so I imagine we will see a young Ben Linus very soon. This begs the question yet again, what happens when your future you runs into the past you? Will Miles see himself as a boy? Will Ben see himself going to the island, assuming they are all in the same time? Can you change yourself? Why did Faraday say it didn't matter what they did anymore? Aren't they still changing the past?

-Richard is the head of the hostiles, who they say are indigenous people to the island. I don't believe that. There are theories that Richard and the hostiles are actually zombie types and came to the island to be resurrected and that's why they're always there. That's an interesting theory. I wonder if that means that selected people are sent there to come back to life because they serve a greater purpose. They need to explain this shit pronto. Juliette seemed distressed to see him, almost like she was afraid. Interesting. And what is this treaty they signed? Who is it between and why? Who is in charge of Dharma? What ever happened to Hanso? Why was Horace so upset that he almost stumbled into the sonar fence? We know he helped John so I think he is good and he helped build the Orchid, right?

-Is Sawyer really over Kate? Who cares.

So this is where we are. I might have left something out but these are the high points. As per usual, more questions than answers but as I said, we did get some pieces to the puzzle. We still have like 7-8 more episodes this season, plus another season next year before we figure this out. CRIKEY!

Umm, this is all I got.

Pisces 3/5/09
Turn on your charm. Keep it turned on. Never mind who says what or does what. Ignore whatever it is that worries or upsets you. Smile and keep smiling. Be kind and warm. Continue to exude generosity of spirit, even when you encounter intense opposition or pettiness. Where will any of this get you? Everywhere you need to be. What will happen if you give way to a less cheerful frame of mind? You will simply slow yourself down and impede your own potential to enjoy good fortune. Be big-hearted if you want to win.

You people are totally awesome. For serious. I love you guys. I'M A WINNER!

So, we've spent most of the week cursed with the plague yet again. This time, I'm the only healthy one. The kid's cold has his booger factory working double overtime and Jeff has had the flu plus a respitory infection. Ugh. I'm hoping they both get better soon because we have a birthday party this weekend to go to and I don't want to miss it. I'm making the cake. Shocking, I know. It's a dog cake. Check the other blog this weekend if you care to see it.

Well, aside from snot excavations and administering meds, things here have been rather boring. Just working and making cakes. Maybe something exciting will happen and then I'll have something to write about. Wait, I take that back because next thing I know the roof will cave in or some crap. I MEAN, THINGS ARE FINE.