Birthday Cakes

Inspired largely by fond memories of our childhood birthday cakes, we decided that we would make Anders an extraordinary cake for his first birthday. But before we go into that, I thought it would be fun to take a quick look back at some of those inspirational cakes that we had as kids.

For my second birthday, my Aunt Jill made me a merry-go-around (or is it circus tent?) cake.

Mike's 2nd Birthday: Merry-Go-'Round(?) Cake

I actually don't have a lot of pictures of my various birthday cakes, as most of the photos are still with my parents. I do have a few good birthday cake stories, though. When I was turning somewhere around 9 or 10 and my brother Drew was turning 3 or 4 (our birthdays are only a day apart), my birthday cake was sitting on the dining room table awaiting the arrival of the guests. But before anyone arrived, Drew decided that it would be fun to put his arm into middle of the cake. Oops.

And a few years after that my parents arranged a birthday party for me at the local roller rink, which was a pretty cool party setting in the 80s (actually, I wouldn't mind a roller-skating party now, either.) Everything was going great until the rink brought out the cake that they had made for my party, and the icing read: "Happy Birthday, Michelle." Decidedly uncool.

Corinne has very fond memories of some of the creative cakes that her mom made for her and her brothers when they were little. We recently dragged out the photo boxes, warmed up the scanner and brought those memories back to life.

Leif & Loren's 2nd Birthday: Circus
(I guess that must be the official 2nd birthday theme)

Corinne's 5th Birthday: Lamb

L&L's 5th Birthday: Trains
(These would become a recurring theme, as you'll see)

Corinne's 7th Birthday: Strawberry Shortcake

L&L's 7th Birthday: Trains (again)

L&L's 8th Birthday: Snoopy

L&L's 11th Birthday: Fishing

L&L's 12th Birthday: Trains

So with cakes and stories like those, we knew we wanted to do something memorable. (Of course, Anders is probably still too small to remember it himself, but that's beside the point.) Corinne decided that for Anders's first birthday she would make him a Rocket cake.

With a little searching online, she found some example cakes to use as a starting point. She picked out her favorite cake and frosting recipes, ordered cake molds and frosting tints, and set out to make the coolest birthday cake ever. The design consisted of a Rocket sitting atop a double sheet cake base. The rocket portion would be banana cake (Anders loves bananas) and the base two chocolate cakes with chocolate sour cream frosting. Since we're fairly proficient in the kitchen, making the actual cakes would be the easy part; the real challenge would be in the decorating.

Once Anders was in bed on the night before the birthday party, Corinne pulled out the cakes to decorate. It was a painstaking process that lasted late into the night; I think we finished close to 1:00am. But we think that the end result warranted the extra effort.

And now, the final result!

With the cake done, the only thing left was the party!

- Mike, Corinne, and Anders Rocket

Date: September 19th, 2009

Company Picnic

Insitu recently held its annual employee picnic. One nice perk this year is that they hired photographer Michael Peterson to wander around and take pictures of the event. (They claim that it was not to "take attendance".)

The "newbie" shirt was a gift from our nerd friends Evan and Erin, and we thought it would be appropriate attire for the day. The shirt received quite a few chuckles from many engineers at the picnic.

- Corinne, Mike, and Anders Rocket

Date: September 18, 2009

Big Fan

Like most babies (or at least boys), Anders has been fascinated by ceiling fans since he was very little. He is constantly pointing at ours at home, and it's usually the first place he looks when entering a room.

I ran into IKEA the other day and found Anders staring at the ceiling. I looked up to discover a HUGE ceiling fan. I have to admit that it was pretty cool.

Watch this video on YouTube or
in the original blog post

- Corinne, Mike, and Anders Rocket

Date: September 17, 2009

MIT Hopeful

We took Anders out for a stroll in the driveway, mainly to capture some photos of him in his new T-shirt, a gift from the Silvestros.

After the stroll, Anders sat down in the driveway and decided to eat rocks. We were taking photos at 1 second intervals and caught this sequence.

1: Eat a rock.

2: Cry because Dad took it away.

3: Just two seconds later, act casual and look for another rock.

4: Check to see if Dad is watching.

5: Eat second rock, then close mouth really tight so Dad can't take it away.

Hmmmm... Buddy, you're not doing much for the name on that shirt!

- Corinne, Mike, and Anders Rocket

Date: September 14, 2009

The Nines

Our anniversary is in September, and we realized not too long ago that we would be celebrating our 9th anniversary on 09-09-09. Pretty cool! Then we read about this Wisconsin baby born on 09-09-09 at 9:09 AM weighing 9 lbs 9 ounces. (What an overachiever.)

We were still in Seattle, so for our anniversary "date" night we started with a nice dinner at Lark in Capital Hill. Food was delicious, small plates, but the highlight was the fig and goat cheese tart for dessert. We then strolled through Volunteer Park for a while, did some shopping in University Village, then to finish it off had dessert at Dilettante Mocha Cafe & Chocolate Martini Bar. (We were hoping for something a bit more "cafe" and a bit less "bar".)

Meanwhile, Donna and Aunt Joie had a great time with Anders while we were out. He was even asleep when we got home!

- Mike, Corinne, and Anders Rocket

Date: September 9, 2009

Labor Day In Seattle

We decided to check on Mom again over Labor Day weekend, to see how she was recovering from her hip replacement. Since all of our other trips to Seattle this year had been hectic, we decided to take a few extra days to do nothing.

On the way to Seattle, Anders and I stopped in Wapato, the history of which is surprisingly interesting for the middle of nowhere Washington. As I drove the rural roads, I could see that this is the land of peaches, apples, and hops. We stopped and bought two boxes of beautiful peaches for $7/box, and boy were they delicious. We didn't think we were going to be able to eat two boxes but we did with no problem. It was a sweet week with the family.

We did make a few exceptions to our plan to do nothing on vacation. Dad joined us for Anders's first ferry ride. We all enjoyed some BBQ dinner on Bainbridge Island and then took the ferry back again.

The awesome sweater in the photos was knit by our friend Davy. We call it the "sock monkey" sweater due to the colors.

We also took Anders to the Woodland Park Zoo while in Seattle. Mom joined us via wheelchair and Leif offered to come along to propel her. Anders is probably a little young to truly appreciate the zoo, but he definitely tracked the animals with his eyes so I think he got something out of it.

I particularly enjoyed the hippo who did a barrel roll in the water for me. The penguins are always fun too. By this point in the day, Anders was too tired to give us his usual full-faced smile.

Of course, Anders enjoyed all the time with Aunt Taryn, Uncle David, Aunt Joie, Uncle Pete, Uncle Leif, Grandpa and Grandma. He found Grandma's walker quite useful for pulling himself up into a standing position. He learned a new game with his Grandma where he sits on her lap. She gives him a little squeeze and then he'll squeeze back to signal "do it again!". And Aunt Joie may have taught him the word "Peek" with all of her peek-a-boo games.

Watch this video on YouTube
or in the original blog post

Years ago, Aunt Joie had stashed a toy box in the shed with many of Tor and Taryn's favorite toys. With Anders there to visit, Aunt Joie pulled out the toy chest and blew off the dust. Being the same age as my cousins, I had had many of the same toys so it was quite nostalgic going through the chest. Here is Anders with the vintage Fisher Price xylophone and Molly Moo Cow. He quickly turned them both over to spin their wheels.

In the end, some good relaxation time.

- Corinne, Mike, and Anders Rocket

Date: September 8, 2009

Anders's First Haircut

In preparation for his 1st birthday, we decided it was time for Anders to get his first haircut. We took him to our friend Tifani who is a hairstylist at a local salon and who also happens to be Corinne's stylist.

Corinne had some specific requests for his first haircut:

1. Don't cut the front. That's key to keeping him looking like a baby.
   
2. Trim the top so his cowlick stands up again.
   
3. Fix his "Friar Tuck" look.

He was amazingly still and cooperative during the whole procedure - no fidgeting, no wiggling. It must have been the soothing sounds of the indoor water wall and new age music.

View this video on YouTube or
 in the original blog post

He got lots of attention in the salon that day. For some reason everyone seemed to think that he was the cutest customer. But how did it all turn out?

Perfect!

- Mike, Corinne, and Anders Rocket

Date: September 4, 2009

Not a Crawler

The average baby starts crawling somewhere around 8-10 months but Anders has shown no real sign of crawling yet. I haven't really been concerned as I know that there is quite a bit of variation in each baby's time table, and he continues to show lots of development in other areas. And I have to admit I've enjoyed knowing that when I put him down somewhere, I can come back later and he'll still be there.

He has become an expert spinner, though. He spins counter-clockwise as he pivots about his left hand. Only very occasionally does he spin in the other direction. For the past couple of weeks, he has been able to move about the room by spinning and drifting a little with each revolution.

He'll also make a move for a toy by diving. He starts seated, then goes to a crawl-like position, uses his legs to push himself forward into a dive, lands on his stomach, grabs for the toy, rolls over to his back, and then sits back up. Not terribly efficient, but it usually works.

Several people (both grandfathers, daycare friend Tammy, and others) have tried to coach Anders in crawling. They'll demonstrate crawling to him and then prop him up on his knees and try to move his legs for him. But as soon as the propping stops, Anders flattens out to his stomach, rolls over to his back, and then sits up.

But this week he has made some significant progress. He's not crawling, but he has developed a "scoot". One leg (left) is used to prop up his body while the other leg (right) is used to scoot him forward. It's not a very fast way to get around but he is now officially mobile.

This video demonstrated his new technique, as well as his spinning and love of phones.

Watch this video on YouTube
or in the original blog post

- Corinne, Mike, and Anders Rocket

Date: August 28, 2009

Still Laughing

Anders still has laughing fits. This day, he sneezed and then I imitated the sound. Apparently, this was hilarious.

Watch this video on YouTube or
in the original blog post

- Corinne, Mike, and Anders Rocket

Date: August 17, 2009

Bad Hips

As far as hips go, we are hoping that Anders inherited his hip genes from the Ilvedsons (Corinne's father's side) and the Jurmans (Mike's mother's side). Mike's dad is scheduled to have his 2nd hip replaced on August 26th. He had his first hip replaced a few years ago. Corinne's maternal grandmother had one of her hips replaced. And on August 7th, Corinne's mother had her first hip replaced.

So, we all headed up to Seattle for the weekend to check on Corinne's mom Donna who is staying with the excellent Nurse Joie while she recovers. My intention was to help out, but with Anders around I think it ends up as a net zero gain. I believe the only benefit we provided was that Anders is a good distraction from the boredom of surgery recovery.

One of our typical activities during visits is to join Aunt Joie on her walks with the dog(s). Aunt Joie doesn't have any dogs of her own anymore but has a couple of grand-dogs and a few other surrogate pets that stop by when their parents are busy or out of town. On this trip, the resident dogs were the grand-dogs, Mazzi, Taryn's standard poodle, and Vanna, Tor's Italian Bracco (she points!).

We also enjoyed a pleasant morning with Shane and Andrea at a Seattle coffee shop. Shane played with the wiggle worm the whole time.

As we left for home, Mom was doing quite well getting around slowly with her walker.

- Corinne, Mike, and Anders Rocket

Date: August 16, 2009

Dalys at Timberline Lodge

In keeping with our unofficial every-three-months schedule, my parents flew out to visit us this August. The weather was still pretty hot when they arrived, but we hadn't planned to do anything in particular while they were here, so staying inside most of the time was just fine with us.

The one event that we did plan was a trip to Timberline Lodge on Mt Hood. In all the five years we've lived here, we have not once visited there. (Our mountain trips always stopped at Mt Hood Meadows.) Since the 11,000' mountain-top promised to be quite a bit cooler than the 90+ degrees at home, we figured it would be a good place to retreat.

Plus, some of the exterior shots for the movie The Shining were filmed at Timberline. Since my parents had already been to the location on which the inside was based, it seemed justified to finish the job.

Of course, it turned out that the heat wave broke just the day before our trip to Timberline. And when we got up the mountain, the fog got pretty heavy and the temperature was in the 40s! So we stayed inside and didn't get to take the lift. We did enjoy some pretty good food, though.

- Mike, Corinne, and Anders Rocket

Date: August 12, 2009