Normally Baby B falls asleep soon after we get going but today he was wide awake and squirmy. He'd hold his hand up for me to give him a high five and get excited when an airplane would pass overhead. About half-way through our walk he got fussy. I think he wished he was out toddling around instead of being buckled into his little red stroller.
"See, it's not all rainbows and lollipops," Amara said to point out that her son was not the perfect child.
Amara and Christian taught B some baby sign language when he was months old. I knew the sign for "milk" but when he started waving both hands back and forth between sobs I asked Amara what Baby B was signing.
"I'm finished," she replied.
I laughed. Baby B is 15 months old and already he's ironic. Mark my words, that is a special and gifted kid.
After the walk I headed home to bake. Lisa is going to Africa in August to volunteer at a music camp for kids and is having a benefit concert on Sunday night. She asked if I would mind baking something they could serve during the break. Lisa recently started seeing a naturopathic doctor who has her on a strict diet of no eggs and limited dairy. When she first started the new regime Lisa was sad to have to give up baked goods because most of them contain egg so I found a chocolate cake recipe that contained no eggs or milk and baked it for her one night when I had her over for dinner. It turned out well so I decided I would make another one for her concert this weekend so that while surrounded by plates and plates of cookies and sweets that she couldn't eat, at least there would be one thing she knew she could.
The cake is super simple to make and only takes 30 minutes to bake. I decided to do it in a Bundt pan so that it would slice up nicely for a platter. When the cake was done I inverted it onto a plate. About 30 minutes later I lifted the pan up slightly to see if the cake had come away from it yet. Indeed it had, so I pulled the pan away completely and then promptly frowned. I had put the cake upside down too soon while it was still warm and so it broke when it fell from the inside of the pan to the plate. It was unsalvageable.
Abandoning the cake and realizing my spare afternoon time was running out I found a coconut shortbread recipe to make for a second attempt. The recipe had only four ingredients--butter, flour, icing sugar and coconut so it would still be safe for Lisa to eat.
Just as I was starting to get the ingredients out my mom came over. I showed her my cake disaster and told her of my plan B. I went to pull the flour out and held my tongue from swearing in front of my mother when the container tipped over and dumped about half a cup of its contents in my corner cupboard. Outside it was a hot sunny afternoon. Inside I was a hot cranky mess who would much rather be outside gettin' sweaty with it. I was ready to throw my hands up in the air and wave them like Baby B. I'm finished indeed.
"Come back to my house," my mom said after I vacuumed out my cupboard and replaced its contents. "I have a no-bake lemon squares recipe." Last year for mother's day I gave my mom a card that said, "To the woman who taught me that when life gives you lemons you make lemon drop martinis." My mom is very good with me and my lemons.
Lisa and I had made plans to do some people watching on the sidewalk of the Osborne Village Starbucks. It is one of our favourite summer things to do. We both ordered tall icy drinks and scored a free table with a view. I saw more hot girls pass by than guys though so the people-watching was a bust. Under the clear blue sky we talked of boys, dream jobs and babies and then we headed back to her place.
She had Tivo'd this week's season finale of The Vampire Diaries and asked if I wanted to watch it. I had watched it twice on Thursday night and again on Friday night. I had memorized lines and burned to my mind every smoldering, brooding and flirty look Ian Somerhalder/Damon displayed. Yes. Yes I did want to watch the episode again and no I am not going to justify my reasons for you here.
After VD Lisa flipped through the channels and found Sex and the City on Cosmo. It was an episode I hadn't seen in a very long time and hardly remembered. Carrie and Big get into couple mode and Miranda meets Steve and ends up kissing him in the rain.
"I should send you this wedding announcement I read in the New York Times this week," I said. This is another thing I've recently discovered I love--nytimes.com. Mostly I read the technology, science, health and nutrition pages, a bit of the business section too, and oh yeah, the Vows pages. The story I wanted to share was about a woman who wrote a book called Happily Ever After Divorce. She fell in love, got married, got divorced, fell in love with being single but then at 56 found love again.
"She was unattached when she attended a business networking meeting in February 2006 run by Mr. Cooper’s younger brother, Isaiah Cooper, a lawyer, who asked the participants what they hoped to get out of the meeting. Ms. Bram, who had just told someone she wanted romance back in her life, stood up and blurted: “Well, to be honest I’d like to start dating. So if anybody knows anyone... ”"--Vows, Jessica Bram and Robert Cooper
(Does that not totally sound like something I would do? Wait a minute, I think I did once. Lemme get back to you on that.)
To try to keep myself grounded I try very hard not to believe in fairy tales--Hot, brooding boys who are actually full of heart and the dashing, hard to pin down but worth the wait Mr. Big are fantasy characters in TV shows not to be found in reality. But how many years has the NYT been publishing these lovely love stories? It's the New York freakin' Times--that's a credible news source! These sweet and wonderful things do really happen.
"This Happily Ever After began in the spring of 2005 at the rock club Sin-é, a now-shuttered spot on St. Marks Place, where Ms. Auster was tending bar. She was transfixed when Mr. Jaramillo took the stage alongside a custom-made contraption created from microphone tripods and multiple rows of guitar pedals. Since graduating with a drama degree from Juilliard, she had focused on music but had never seen such a device.--Vows, Katarina Auster and Wilson Jaramillo
“Oh my God, he is a genius,” she remembered thinking. She noticed something else, too: “He had great guitar biceps.”"
My sister ended up with a heart-breaker-turned Prince Charming like Big. Nigel will one day marry his junior high crush who he randomly bumped into on Portage Avenue three years ago and has been with ever since. And me? I don't know if my prince will be dark and brooding but I will get my New York Times-worthy romance. I mean, you know me, it's gonna be blog-worthy.
But until then, Prince C looks like this:
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