Cooking Again!

Look who felt good enough to help Momma make a triple layer cake yesterday? He is getting to be a real pro at cracking eggs, measuring and using that hand-held mixer that I let him use. He stands on an upside down cooler in the kitchen - it is very stable and gives him a little more room than a stool. Actually, this was during his one little burst of energy yesterday and soon after he was back on the bed, but he definately is on the mend. He woke up 2X last night in alot of pain (can we all spell Tylenol?). The good news... today he woke up all chipper and excited that he could smile once again. Breaking news! Little Boy can smile, phew! Crises is over and maybe, just maybe tonight I will actually get a chance to take that shower! Yup, lips and mouth are definately on the mend.

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I do actually know what caused his re-action... turns out that he is allergic to silicone. That would explain the chapstick/lipgloss reaction he had last year - silicone based. This time around it was a new pacifier that he had in his mouth for 2 nights - about 10 minutes each. So, all of 20 minutes. He falls asleep with it in his mouth and then once he is sleeping he spits it out. Now, I've tried 2 other times to take that "thing" away from him - once he started sucking his 2 front fingers - so I gave it back, and the other time he cried and cried for THREE weeks (right, and everyone else told me it would be 3 days, sure)! That time around I thought for sure that after 3 weeks we were through the worse - except, horrors, he found one that I had missed when I did the pacifier sweep. He was hugging it and kissing it and telling me how much he had missed it and surely it was his lucky day to find one again! Sigh, what is a Momma to do? Anyway, I usually buy the latex pacifiers and this time around the store didn't have one so I grabbed a silicone one. Well, now I know - he is very allergic to silicone. The pharmacist told me to be careful with medicines because often the tablets are coated with silicone and then this morning my sister told me that lots of lotions have silicone in them. OK, Momma is on the alert now. And, yes he is all done with pacifiers once and for all now - he handed it right over to the nurse when she told him that it was making his mouth hurt so badly.

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Oh, about that cake... we divided the batter between 3 pans - this is sooooo very much easier than trying to cut cakes in 1/2 in order to do different fillings. This one has a jam filling on the bottom and a lemon/cream cheese frosting in the 2nd layer and as frosting. Try it sometime... 1/2 cup of jam or marmalade for each jam layer will do it. Sometimes I add a little can of pineapple bits or chopped mandarine oranges to the frosting. Sometimes I use pudding in a layer. Experiment and have fun. Best to make 1 day before serving so the fillings really have time to soak into the cake - UNLESS you put fruit into your frosting - in that case you should use jam for the layers and then frost the top right before serving because the fruit will cause the frosting to seperate. Soooo yummy. I just love making cake. This time around - we used a boxed mix to make it extra quick and easy for my "helper"!