Diario di Mamma Jenn

After deciding that I wanted cupcakes for Izzie's first birthday party, I started my search for a good recipe and yes, I have decided to borrow Martha's recipe. Since I have never made cupcakes from scratch here in Italy, I figured I had to try them out at least once before the party...I didn't want to bake my experimental batch the night before. So, I made them praying that the "baking angels" would be by my side while I baked my first batch ever. They turned out delicious!! There is however one or two things that I am going to change to the recipe, just because I'm too much of a perfectionist and although they were good, they weren't perfect. Now I just need to try out a good frosting and I will be done. I will make sure to post pics of the party cupcakes.

On to a different topic...today we went shopping for gifts that we're planning on taking to my nieces and nephew back in Houston and let me tell you that it was exhausting!! My hubby ran out of energy running around afterIzzie everywhere in the mall. She even scared a poor little dog!! At all costs she wanted to pet the dog and the dog was afraid of Izzie. While grocery shopping she would climb on shelves and jump. She has way too much energy!! The only problem is that when she gets tired and wants to be nursed and sleep, she will scream her lungs out loud!!! At that point one has to stop everything and do what she wants or she will continue to sob and scream until she gets what she wants. Daddy may have run out of energy literally running after her, but my arms fell from the weight I carried around while nursing her and she fell asleep. After a long time and my arm almost falling off, I woke her up by placing her on her stroller, she woke up immediately. I was so glad she had woken up, otherwise she would have been woken up by the rain and hail that was falling on the way home. Yes, I did say hail. As I mentioned on my previous post, summer solsistice what? I don't think it's supposed to hail during the summer, or is it?

Right now Izzie is screaming and sobbing, it's time to sleep. Good nite...

Today is not only Father's day, but it's also my Father-in-Law's special day. Today my Father-in-Law turns 73 years young...Happy Birthday Ugo!!

Today has been a good day...

Another reason for today being special is because Izzie started "jumpimg" today!! She is sooo adorable!! For the past few days she gets into a tumble position which I joke with her and ask her if she's doing the downward facing dog position. Since she insists in doing that I decided to help her flip. Because I am afraid of hurting her, I lift her body completely and flip her-- boy does she love it! She quickly gets ready for another flip and another one. We only do this on top of our bed and she's aware of that because even if she gets into the tumble position in the living room, she doesn't ask to be flipped. Today besides tumbling she started jumping, well, according to her she is jumping. :) She crouches and then springs her body up and then she turns to look at you with such an excited expression like saying "did you see?" Several times her feet did actually come off the floor a few centimeters, so technically she did Jump! Anyone that sees her walking alone will immediately ask how old she is, they think she's older, instead she's only 11 months but she seems like a year and a half. I am so proud of my baby girl!!

Her Nonno Ugo gave her a surprise 11-month gift, it is a toy cash register that teaches numbers, colors, shapes and sounds both in Italian and English, when she saw it, she immediately smiled, she loved it! Of course like every baby, she immediately started scattering the smaller pieces here and there and Mommy had to go hunting for them. Her Abuelita Lulù on the other hand gave her a baby doll that cries for her bottle. Izzie will have to wait to get her monthly gifts from Abuelita, but time is creeping on us and before you know it we'll be out there! Which reminds me, my hubby was kind enough to remind me that we should start thinking about Izzie's 1st birthday party. I didn't think there was much to think about, we invite the usual people, we just have to set the time, send the invites and he cooks and bakes. I don't think there will be a particular theme or anything, or maybe I should have a flower theme. Izzie loves flowers and a flower cake and/or cupcakes should be easy to make, right?

Besides this birthday party, I need to start a plan on how to move Izzie from our bed to her crib. I am TIRED of her sleeping with us. I acknowledge it was MY fault to begin with, but I HAVE LEARNED MY LESSON!!! Before Izzie was born, I used to say that babies belong in their crib and not in bed with the parents. I am still a firm believer in it, I just happened to not do it, this time. Come to think about it, I actually put her in bed with me at the hospital!! She would cry so much that I would put her to sleep next to me and only then would she sleep. At least she slept then because I sure didn't, I was afraid I would roll over her! I didn't start her off in our bed immediately, she would sleep in her crib, but she hated it. At about 5 or 6 months I slowly started sneaking her in our bed, it was soooo much easier for me since I nurse her. Oh and by the way, I feel so proud of me, 11 months and I'm still nursing her!! I'm also getting a little tired of that, but I know I am giving her an awesome gift for she has yet to get sick. Knock on wood, on metal or whatever!! Anyway, there came a time when I started to put her in her crib and let her cry it out, yes the infamous Ferber method that a lot of moms criticize. It was the ONLY way she would go to sleep, luckily for me the most she ever did cry for was 30 minutes and then the following day it went to 15 min then 5 min. Why didn't I continue??!! She started to teeth and at this time, both my hubby and I thought: "Poor baby, she's hurting" and back to our bed she went. Now she completely takes over our bed and she leaves my hubby in one little edge and myself on the opposite little edge of the bed. How can a little body take over and entire bed?!?! She moves a lot too!! Well, I know whom she takes after and her sleeping positions? Yeah, just like her Mommy .

Besides my crazy countdown for Houston, I have another countdown going on, it's on a smaller scale, 7 days. It's 7 days until Izzie turns 11 months!! I can't believe my baby is going on 11 months!! Have I mentioned that she has 2 new teethers? She now has a total of 6! I wonder if she'll be growing 2 each month? If it is that way, she'll be having 10 teethers by the time she turns 1!! Today she successfully put her shapes in her Tupperware shape sphere thingy, I am such a proud Mommy as you can imagine. Finally another toy to keep her busy for more than 5 minutes, yay!!

Well I don't have much this time around, so I will post again in a few days...