08 March 2011

A little French lesson...

As today is Mardi Gras and tomorrow is mercredi...
which means french-ish musique here at Taking It On... 
I have been thinking in French... 
well, not really... 
but thinking about French and realizing that probably only Caroline, SUAR and Noémie have a clue as to what most of these songs are saying... 
well, except that one by Pink Martini which had all those educational tools to help you out.

So here is a little french lesson for ya.

Note that it is family guy and if family guy humor offends you, you might want to just skip this ;-)  Remember... french is classy!




And if you missed my kids' back-to-back birthdays, you can check out their supercutenesses here for my magic baby, Miss C, and here to see Mr. Awesome, Q-Man.  And later today I'll try to get up the story of Miss C ice skating on her birthday... complete with pictures and video!  

Do you speak French?  Another language with any sort of proficiency?
– I took French a lot in the past.  I can get by but am not fluent by any stretch of the imagination.  I also dabble in Italian, Spanish and German but cannot really hold a conversation in any of those three.

What language do you wish you could speak fluently?
– too many to pick just one!  Like Big G says almost every day  "I wish I could speak, read and write every language in the universe!"

07 March 2011

My Magic Baby Turns Two!

Miss C is my magic baby.  For so many reasons.

She was a most wanted surprise.

When you have a lot of kids and when you have kids and you are old, people ask a lot of probing questions.  "Was she planned?" has been the most frequent one.

Ummmm... it is pretty hard to plan a baby when you are 45 years old!?

I knew she was special (yes, they all are, but this one is different) when I was about 8 weeks pregnant.  My husband was very worried.  Knowing there would be lots of negativity from family.  Ten kids is a lot.  Money.  My health.  Baby's health.  His age.  My age.  One night in the midst of all this worry, I woke up and I woke him up.

"She wants to be wanted.  She wants to not be feared."

Little Baby inside told me this.  I know it sounds all new-age-y and airy-fairy, but she did.  It was strange because I had been convinced baby would be a boy (and this conviction was strengthened by my acupuncturist's prediction).  We found out 12 weeks into it that she was, in fact, a she.  I had genetic testing (CVS) and so it was certain... as was the fact that she was genetically healthy :)

It was an amazing pregnancy, and I looked at it as the gift it truly was.  It would be my last.  I relished every part of it... especially the baby moving part... my favorite :)  My due date was given as Q-Man's birthday... March 6.  He told me he wanted to be 4 before the baby came.  She complied.  I went into labor at 10 p.m. on his birthday, and she was born the next afternoon.

Her birth was different from the other 3 kids'.  I was the calmest ever.  The nurses and doctors in attendance were so fun and friendly!  It was almost like a party!  I sang to the anesthesiologist (he said that was a first... it was "Good ship lollipop"... for real).  A mere 7 minutes from "ready to go" to baby on my chest.  And she was born in the caul (en-caul according to this article).  I wouldn't let them break my water because my oldest two had dipped into distress when that was done.  The doctors were really excited to see a baby born in the bag!  I wish I could post pictures... it looks really cool... but some people are not "into" birth pictures... and I am not so sure I want that view of myself on a public blog :P

So here she is... my magic girl...

Less than 5 minutes out of the oven...

Been out in the world just under an hour...

  Less than 24 hours and meeting her brothers and sister for the first time... 


Six months and figuring out how to crawl...

She fits right in!

Three days before her 1st birthday... loves to play patty-cake!

Mittens!

18 months old... look at those teeth!

And today...
we went ice skating for her birthday.  
It was her first time on the ice...
and she LOVED it!!


Tomorrow I'll put up more about the skating :)

Right now it is time for the cake!

Granny's Gadgets #10

The first double-digit Granny's Gadget... special ;-)

Actually, it is a special one... March 6 is Q-Man's birthday (you can see his life in pictures by clicking on the blue) and March 7 is Miss C's birthday, so we got to make cakes and use a special gadget just for cake baking!


I know it is hard to believe that there is a special gadget just for this purpose... even after seeing the video.  And I know that it is really hard to see the gadget well enough in the video to trust that it is what I say it is.  My phone's close-up capabilities are lacking :(

Well....

You can trust me.
photo taken with a real camera showing the engraving on this special gadget
see, I told you you could trust me :)
If you loved me, you would



And here is the awesomely delicious and lovely cake I made!  MMMMmmmmmmm.... scrumptious.
I am soooooo glad I had that tester!  Who knows what might have happened if I didn't have something to properly test the doneness of the cake?

Just imagine...

How do you test if a cake is done?
–I usually use a toothpick... but now....


Have you ever messed up a cake?
–of course!  forgot to grease the pan before... sticks super bad and rips the bottom off.  Overcooked because I had a faulty toothpick, and the cake was then dry and burned on the edges.  

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