Daddy Time

 
Miles and his Dad love to play. Of course it is different than Mom and Miles play. Things are all a little more exciting and daring. Miles can't get enough of James. He follows him around the house whenever he is home so that he can touch his feet. Then James is supposed to pick him up. It's hilarious, Miles will just scoot around and around as James tries to dodge his grasps, but once contact is made then Miles gets vocal and demands to be picked up and played with.
 

West Philadelphia Born and Raised

 
Don't let that Santa Barbara hat fool you (Thanks Maddox and Amanda), our little guy is already a Philly boy through and through. Check out his sideways hat, and his great street-style break dancing. And don't forget to notice the toothbrush clutched in his little fingers. He loves brushing his teeth (no doubt trying to impress his Dad and Grandpa). I love how he is already soaking up the culture around him...ha ha.

This was too cute not to post.

Our Determined Little Man

OK, so here is Miles holding the socks that he had on earlier. He needed to take them off in order to stand and he knows it now. He is so determined to get up onto the furniture that he will do anything to achieve it. I was suprised to find him here, holding his socks, but happy that I had the composure to grab the camera.
 
Here is gearing up to go. He grunts and squeals and he tries to pull himself up. I love this ferocious face of his. It makes me laugh. We are starting to see it more often than any other expression.
 
 
And we are up! So proud of himself, and I am so proud of him. He is getting better and better at it, and is walking alongside the furniture constantly. The only thing he wants to do now is stand and walk around. Its a lot more work for me, but I love watching him accomplish these milestones.
 

Friday Flashback!

So in all fairness I have to give credit to an old friend who did this on her blog. (This way she can't get me for plagiarism.) I thought it was a great way to incorporate older pictures from before I started blogging. So here goes......

Miles Now....


and Then....


I swear he hardly looks the same! He has gotten so big and has such a personality. I remember we always had a hat on him (even though it was summer) because he was such a cone head.

Us Now.... (Well, even this was taken while I was pregnant)


and Then....


Notice how much better looking we were. We were both tan, I had great hair!, James was 15 pound of muscle heavier, and I was 10 pounds lighter. :)

Liz's Cake

 
A few Blogs ago I wrote about cake competitions. My friend Liz just emailed me some photos of her cake for this year. The theme was flowers and Liz took a interpretive approach. Her bottom tier is flowers, next is the sun, next is wildlife, next is water, next is moisture, and the top tier is love.
 
I loved her concept. Her design was so original and I adored all the use of textures and dimension. Most of you don't understand what kind of time goes into a piece like this; so to let you know it probably is a good 30-40 hours of hand work and shaping. I am so proud.
Below is a picture of the winner's cake this year. Sylvia Winestock was the main judge, and she is much more of a traditional decorator. The cake is beautiful....but I like Liz's better.
 

They are Victorious!

"Rules of Occlusion" (James' basketball team) won their first and final game last night. It was all very exciting. Things were looking grim in the beginning as our small team with the tallest player being 6'3" set up to tip of against their tallest player who was easily 6'8". The team we were playing had not lost yet, and it didn't look like we would pose a problem. But the game was close almost the entire time and was really physical. The only way our boys were keeping up was by the amazing amount of three point shots they were making....James with 4 (go babe!) and Dave with 5 or 6 and I even think Zack had 2. It was awesome. To add to the excitment and drama during the first half one of our players was knocked to the ground (again, it was a really physical game) and got a minor concussion. It also looked like he may have either dislocated his shoulder or broken his collar bone....I haven't heard the official report. So a few of our teammates took him to the hospital across the street. But that didn't get our team down. They remained on the court with only four players, yep four players. Well needless to say since I ruined this story by telling you all how it ended in the very first line...they won! James was thrilled and talked all night to the other guys on the team about how well they played. Zack is going to write a letter of petition for them to get into the playoffs since they beat the best team in the league. If they don't squeak into the playoffs, I think this is a great way to go out, ON TOP! :)

Cakes, Cakes, and More Cakes.....

Yesterday was the City of Hope's annual cake decorating competition here in Philadelphia. It is called "Let Them Eat Cake". I didn't get to enter this year...so sad. I didn't ask my boss, which I probably should have done, but I figured a part time girl wasn't worth the 100$ entrance fee. Next year I won't be too shy to ask, I will just go for it.
I was so jealous as I spoke to my protege Liz as she cultivated her design. (I can't take complete credit for her immense talent now, she was pretty talented already when I got my hands on her) She called me Monday to bounce some final ideas back and forth, and my palms started itching I wanted to design something so badly.
Doing a competition cake for me was always a time to experiment with ideas and techniques that you never got to do on a real cake. Most brides want something conventional, or trendy. I ended up doing a lot of the same thing. (Not that I am complaining, I love my job). But to justify spending the kind of time on a cake that you need to spend, on something risky...that may not look that great, was hard. Competition time was my favorite. Here are my old competition cakes. They are not my favorite cakes, (as a matter of fact that orange one is one of my least favorites), and as you can see I definitely experimented with things. Each one taught me something that worked and I loved to keep doing, and each one also taught me something I never wanted to do again.
 
 
 
 

Quite the Accomplishment

Oh, goodness! Miles scared me half to death today. I was sitting on the couch eating (of course) and Miles was quietly playing on the floor....such a good boy. When I look over and he is not playing on the floor at all, but has pulled himself up to a standing position all by himself! There he is standing in socks on our very slippery, and recently pledged, hard wood floors; holding onto a very sharp edged piece of furniture. I just sat there in shock for a second and Miles looked up at me thrilled by his accomplishment. I quickly got my act together and grabbed him so that he wouldn't collapse right onto an edge.
It is amazing how quickly he learns to do things, and I am sure in no time he will be pulling himself up all over the house. Sorry no picture...I don't think he could hold it long enough for me to get one.

Our Future Chef

Miles loves a lot of things....feet (shoes in particular), our cell phones, anything that lights up, and now more the ever... the kitchen. He has just started venturing further and further around the house, and the kitchen has become a place with a lot excitement. He loves all the shiny surfaces and new noises.




He loves the oven and the refrigerator in particular. James will hold him up to the oven (but I think Miles believes he is doing it all by himself), and sometimes he makes it beep which thrills him to no end. When he gets onto the refrigerator he turns into a little monkey trying to climb his way up to the top. It completely occupies his time, whenever we are losing his attention. Maybe one day he will actually cook something.

Sneak Peek

Miles has always loved the sheer drapes in his bedroom. He often tries to grab at them and put them in his mouth as we walk around the room. Today he discovered the door behind the drapes, and was obsessed with pulling the drape behind him so that he could look outside.



He was really excited to see me on the other side of the curtain, this next picture is another great example of his ferocious expression.




I had to put this one in...check out that drool! He is getting three more teeth in all at once, so the drool seems to be exponentially increasing.