23. Do 5 craft projects from the internet - Monkey Cake !

Found this recipe on one of my favorite food blogs, Smitten Kitchen, which everyone should be looking at, since she has amazing recipes with clear easy to follow instructions.

I'm late to post this, since LPs birthday party was over 2 weeks ago.  Actually, that's not much time at all, but things have been so strange lately, that it feels like a lifetime ago.  We are currently staying with my parents as we look for jobs in the Austin area.  It's been barely 3 weeks of this, two if you consider that the first one was about unloading the moving truck and getting our space set up.  Then a day or two to recover from moving all our stuff from Brooklyn to Texas, which is no small feat.

But man, it's weird to not be in our own place and out there in the job market.   Everyday seems to drag forever, and sending our resumes and networking can be emotionally debilitating.  But we persevere.  Because we have to, and also because, did I mention we're staying with my parents?  Free babysitting, yo.  Nate and I haven't had this much time to ourselves since before LP was born.  Good times, and makes it all balance out in a strange way.

But I digress.  Today is one of those babysitting days, where we've parked ourselves in a coffee shop to get things done for a few hours.  So here I blog, because checking things off a 101 List feels like major accomplishments these day.  

We had a blast preparing the birthday party.  Nothing too crazy, since she's only turning 1, and it's important to keep things in perspective, but I had seen this monkey cake months ago and was dying to make it.  It's very banana based, and therefore lower on sugar, which means LP loved it.  She wasn't crazy about her personal cupcake, but once I cut her a piece of the real cake, she dug in with gusto.  We even got the obligatory baby-covered-in-frosting photo op (it's on the flickr page).   We also made caprese skewers, 3 colored jello, had a cheese tray, chips and guac, and mum-mums for the little ones.  All in all it looked pretty good.

I cant believe a whole year has passed.  Has it really been over 12 months since they handed us a little squirmy sleepy baby and trusted us to take care of her?  The first few days seem like a crazy blur.  Sleep, diaper, breastfeeding, burp, repeat again.  Slowly she grew, and started to smile, sit, stand, babble, and not needing to be burped.  And now here we are, with an energetic toddler who's the light of our lives.  I never cease to be amazed at how life changes.