Market Research.

So, it's probably fairly obvious (If you're one of my facebook friends, and if not, dude, add me!) that I LOVE cakes. Well, in a way. I don't always love eating cake, but I love creating them. I love taking something as simple as flour and eggs, and turning it into something people crave. I love turning something from a cake wreck, into a work of art in the wee hours of the morning (okay, not really, but that seems to be how it works for me :)) Cakes are me. I'm the cake lady. Need a cake? Call me! I'll do anything.. apparently.. :) Considering my latest creation..



My friend had mentioned awhile ago wanting me to make a cake for her husbands 40th birthday. Specifically, a "boob" cake. I told her that I would do it. Reluctantly. I think these cakes are kinda weird... I don't know why. Almost as weird as the pregnant belly cakes... but those freak me out, because I can't imagine cutting one... seriously, think about it. Yeah. But I digress. So, we never really talked about the cake again, and I thought she must have changed her mind. HA! nope. She called Thursday. And asked if there was ANY way I could do the cake for Friday. EEK!! I, being the absolute glutton for punishment, agreed. It also stems from my need to make everyone happy. It's a sickness. Digress.. again.

So, then began the mad rampage of my kitchen. Do you know how many things I have in my kitchen that are shaped like breasts? ZERO! Who knew!? So, I ended up making the breasts in ramekins... or custard cups, whatever you want to call them. And then A LOT of engineering went into getting those puppies round! Many cake scraps and much icing was used. And I will never be a plastic surgeon. Sorry. :) But, like my husband was so kind to point out, my boobs aren't even, so of course, neither should the cake's be. LOL. Thanks dear.

I felt better about the cake once I got the rest of the icing on. I wish I had lowered the blue a bit more, to give it a bit more cleavage, but I'm always my own worst critic. :) And besides, there were kids at the party, so I wanted it to be fairly PG :)

OH!! Shout out to Jackie!! I used your mousse recipe for the filling! It was AWESOME!! White Chocolate :) My friends raved about it :) And so Easy! Who knew!?

Oh, wow. Did I ever digress on this post! I hadn't intended to write a play by play of my corset cake creation!!

What I really came here to ask was about the name of my future venture. I'm thinking of calling my business SugarMama's Cakes and Bakes. SugarMama's for short :) What do you think?? I have a good friend who does business branding, so I'm going to run it past her, to see what she thinks... But I kinda love it already :) I can just hear it. "OMG! Where did you get that cake!?" "SugarMama's" :)

I want to be able to start leaving my customers with a business card or two when I deliver a cake... so I need a name!! If there's any other suggestions, feel free to throw them out there!!

Thanks guys.

Oh, P.S. Need a cake?? ;)

And then a sigh of relief...

I love it when I freak out about something, and then get a sign that I am right :)

Mason had his first session for his second block of speech therapy today. And He Did AWESOME!! Never was there a child more perfect than mine :) He was blowing J out of the water with his mad speech skillz :) There are definitely still delays there, and I'm glad we're addressing them now... but man.. he was just so GOOD! I'm hopeful that by September, when he starts Kindergarten, all these struggles will be a distant memory :)

I like being hopeful..

2 steps forward, 2 steps back.

When I dropped Mason off at school today, I found out that the integration resource support worker was going to be there observing Mason. Surprise!! This of course, after I had been through the whole spiel with him about being nice to his friends, and listening to his teachers, and being a very good boy today. Figures. :) I mentioned to his teacher that he was starting a new block of speech therapy tomorrow. And that his ADOS (Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule) is coming up soon, on May 14th. She seemed surprised by that, and said, "Oh! Who's doing the ADOS??" I replied, "Dr.K" in a tone that said, "duh, thought you knew that??". And then she said "oh! no no no! Dr. K won't do the ADOS." And I said "Huh??" She said, "No, he is just the pediatrician. Mason has to be accepted as his patient before the ADOS can be done." HUH!?!?! NO ONE TOLD ME THAT!!! Here I'm thinking we're almost done with this shit, and we haven't even started. What if Dr. K decides not to take Mason on?? And seriously!? This is NOT what I was told. I was told, OH! You really want Dr. V for your ADOS ped. She's the best. And then I found out that Dr.V wasn't doing the ADOS anymore. So I got stuck with the Dr they kept telling me I probably didn't want. Crap.

So now I'm so confused. Mason was put on a waiting list with the Pre-school speech and language program for them to do the ADOS on video. The video would then be sent to Dr. J (Who really is the best of the best), who would assess from there. I was also told to get on board with a pediatrician to do an ADOS, because although doubtful, that might be a faster way of getting it done. So, fine, I got screwed around by my family Dr trying to get that referral. And now that I have it, I find out that I may still be up shit creek without a paddle. AND! the resource teacher tells me that one of the speech path's at the pre-school speech program is who will do ADOS!! And then Dr. K will read the results and make the final diagnosis from there. So no matter what, it's the same people doing the same test! WTF??

I'm most worried that he won't be accepted as a patient by Dr.K. Since his surgery, he's shown pretty much ZERO signs of Autism. I still really really really want to do the ADOS. I have a point to prove now. I want his resource teacher, and the supervising speech path to STOP assessing him, and treating him like he has Autism, if in fact he doesn't. I have concerns about Sensory Integration Disorder, but even that is only a small concern. Sorry, sidetracked there... seriously. During Mason's last Speech and Language assessment Mason was so good. However, he was really interested in the lanyard that A was wearing, with her name and picture. Mason has always been interested in those. Not obsessed, interested. In the report I got regarding that assessment, it was 'observed' that Mason invaded A's personal space to fixate on her identification. WHAT!? he's THREE!! At the same appointment, she brought out a puzzle he had never seen before. And as he was absorbed in doing the puzzle, she started talking, randomly, about how she had ridden a horse that weekend, with a wagon, blah blah blah. She was trying to get him to engage in conversation... I get that. But I don't see how that relays back to speech and language... not in the way she worded her report. It was a big fat, this kid has Autism report. And I'm not impressed.

Shoot this is random. Bottom line is, I want the ADOS to prove to these people that they are wrong, and to start focusing on his Speech. But that I am afraid I will never get an official diagnosis (or a negative diagnosis... does that make sense??) because Mason's behaviour is so different now than what it was pre-surgery. Blah. Just more hurry up and wait I guess. Blah.

Poor Mason :( And, Stupid telehealth.

A rant if you will. Except that I am, so you won't have to, so don't! haha. blah.

Mason is still sick. Not as sick as he was, but still sick :( He threw up again last night, after another day of diarrhea. And then he was so sleepy and not himself :( So, we put him to bed, Al went to the gym, and I called telehealth. (A free service, where one can call a nurse and get medical advice for non emergencies. Great concept. Poor execution.)

I've had a few reasons to call telehealth in the past 7 years of parenting that I've done. I don't remember calling them before becoming a mother. Guess I knew it all back then haha. I would bet that about 90% of the times I've called, they have advised me to seek immediate medical attention. The one time they were Really helpful was when they told me I could give Mason a higher dose of Benedryl when he had the allergic reaction to Penicillin. Thank you. Other than that.. it's all doom and gloom over there.

Last night was no different. As I said, Mason is still sick. He's not eating, and yesterday he all but stopped drinking. He's boycotting drinking because I am an horrid mother, who wouldn't let him have chocolate milk. DUDE! You have been puking for THREE DAYS!! Nuh uh are you having chocolate milk!! Well.. okay, for the love of all that is precious, yes, have this little drink of chocolate milk. Please, just drink babycakes!! And then he barfed. Lesson learned. ANYWAY!!

I called telehealth. When they finally called me back AN HOUR LATER!! We went through the requisite, Is he breathing, alive, moving etc. yes yes yes etc. They asked if he had been peeing, and I really didn't know. He's had diarrhea, so I've kept a pull-up on him. Beats me if there was pee in them!! He wasn't asking to go pee, but he had also slept almost all day. A few more questions, and it was decided that he was severely dehydrated and needed to get to the hospital STAT. EEK!! Freak me the hell out why don't you!!?? I should have known, but this was my very sick boy we were talking about, and I wasn't messing around anymore. He had me really worried.

So, I call Al to come home from the gym, and then packed Mason up and off we went, for a three hour nap in the hospital. Well, Mason napped, I read, played with my hair, yawned and felt my ass go to sleep in three different chairs. I am SO not complaining about the 3 hours. I know Full well how lucky we were to get in and out of there in 3 hours.

So, we saw the doctor, who confirmed that yes, Mason is dehydrated, but not in an emergency type of way. She said considering how sick he's been, he's doing pretty good. He's got the Flu. A very classic case. It should run it's course in 7-10 days :( So, in the meantime, I'm Lysoling everything he looks at and praying that no one else gets it.

Mason ate a bit today. A bite of a peanut butter sandwich, and 1 1/4 perogies. :) He's lost 4 pounds already, but everyone assures me that he'll be fine if he drinks... now if only I could convince him to do that. :(

Just when I was getting a good rhythm going...

Mason gets sick. I've never seen him so sick :( He started Sunday Morning, with the vomiting and diarrhea. And it hasn't really stopped since. He goes through long stretches of time between attacks now, but he's still not well :( I took him to the clinic and the Dr there said that it looks like it's just a bug. But I'm thinking if he's not himself by tomorrow I'm going to Mama Bear him into an appointment with our family doctor. He's not eating hardly at all, though luckily, he is still drinking fairly well.

I do have some very exciting news to share though!! Al has completed all the training and exams needed to become a Personal Trainer!!! He's wanted this since before I knew him. Unfortunately, like so many things in life, it got pushed aside for a lot of years. I'm so happy that his dream has finally become a reality. And so proud of the hard work he put in to get there. Though, I must say, he owes me A LOT of weekend sleep-ins!! He pulled a lot of late night study sessions to get ready for his exams...and being the total sweetheart that I am.. I of course let him sleep in every weekend. :) So yeah.. he owes me :) Got that Alvin?? :)

Yeah, so, that's about it around here!! Oh! Except I made this!!



It's a poker chip for my best customer's husband. We totally surprised him with it :) Chocolate cake, vanilla filling, buttercream icing. And apparently, it made them all look like Titanic survivors!! LOL.. she ASKED for Blue!!!

And that's all.. for now.