This week Dave and I celebrated our 13th anniversary. 13 years ago we were ready to end our engagement and begin our marriage. I was 22, he was 21. We felt old. We were not.

Every year when our anniversary roles around we wonder what to do. It’s always in the middle of the cluttery month of May, with Mother’s Day and Isaac’s birthday and lots of distractions. We feel like we should do something…but what?

This year it was easy. I had signed up for Groupon a few months ago when I heard I could get Andrew tickets to a Spy exhibit in Times Square. Now I get daily Groupon emails, most of which I trash right away… but when there was a groupon for a helicopter tour of Manhattan, I jumped right on it.

It was only 15 minutes. It was INCREDIBLY touristy (“are you guys locals? we never get locals. Always people from Europe.”)…but it was super cool too. And a little scary. and LOUD! But we loved seeing our city from the air…and seeing it close enough to see some detail. It was really fun and in between snapping photos like the crazy tourists we weren’t, we made faces at each other about our crazy adventure.

And there you have it…another little adventure for the books.

Have a great weekend!

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Yesterday I made a batch of these brownie cookies. I bought a special cocoa for them, which really gives them a rich, grown up, not overly sweet taste. They are pretty fantastic.

You can find the recipe here! I definitely recommend them!

Thank you so much for all of your kind and supportive words yesterday. It means so much to me to hear your encouragement. Thank you all for being there along the way. :) Hopefully there is just more excitement to come! Definitely stay tuned!!

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A little over a month ago, I decided to embrace my grandfather’s brave entrepreneurial spirit and take a big risk. I decided to go ahead and move forward with my photography. I decided to calm that voices that said “you’re not ______ enough” or “you don’t have the right lens” or “what about all the technical things you DON’T know??” and just start building something.

I was inspired by the Autism Awareness Poster Project and the response that came out of that. It made me feel like maybe this IS something I could do…it’s certainly something I love. I enrolled in a class to begin to fill in my technical gaps and I lined up about 8 families to photograph over the next two months to get me going. My goal is to become accredited with Special Kids Photography, an organization I learned about through Rinda (THANK YOU RINDA!!!) that trains photographers on how to specifically shoot Special Needs kids. I won’t only shoot Special Needs kids, but it’s something I want to focus on and get really good at.

And I’m not through with any of my regular crafting exploits. This doesn’t mean a thing about the status of Made In Brooklyn….just that I might pester you to come check out a new shoot I did on my photography site. ;)

Speaking of…please come check it out!

The main site is here.
The post I just put up is here.

You might recognize the family I shot. ;) They show up here a lot and were very kind about playing guinea pig for me.

So….that’s it.

I’ll be back tomorrow showing off some of the cookies I’m about to get out of the oven. Man, they are going to be delicious!

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This weekend we went on a Mother’s Day hike at Bushkill Falls in Pennsylvania. It was a GREAT place to explore…and….for the first time ever, Isaac hiked on his own the whole way, leaving Dave’s strong shoulders some time to rest. It was a great hike, and a great day, and this mama feels super loved. I hope you all had lovely weekends!

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Isaac just turned five. (It seems to be what I’ve mostly been blogging about! tired of it yet? this’ll be the last post…promise!) When Andrew turned five, my heart broke. It up and shattered on me. It was the first time I could clearly see Andrew’s delays…and that clarity was HARD.

At the time, I considered myself an expert on five year olds. I had worked with hundreds of them as a teacher. My students were a diverse mix of ability…but, naturally, all of them were at a level that they could attend a regular, ol’ Kindergarten class. And so seeing Andrew get closer and closer to five, and seeing that he wasn’t getting more and more like the students I had had…was really hard. It was a very tearful time for me.

But now, here, Isaac’s gone and done it. When he woke up on his birthday, he stumbled out to the living room, and said to me “Mommy, I am a new old. I am FIVE years old.” And I just felt happy for him. Happy that he was so proud of himself for his five-year-old status.

I don’t feel heartbroken this time. Not in the least. I have shed no tears about this birthday, swallowed no hard lumps-in-the-throat….and I attribute this all to Andrew.

I say this all the time, but here I go again: my boys have changed me. And I say it all the time, because it’s something I keep noticing again and again: the ways I’ve changed. The picture I had in my head of a “normal five year old” is less clear to me as it once was. I know that Isaac is an atypical five year old…but that fact doesn’t scare me like it used to. At times I even feel a sense of pride about how unusual he is. I LOVE saying things like “Isaac woke up on his birthday and said ‘I am a new old.’” I LOVE that he says the alphabet backwards. I love when something unusual stops him in his tracks and I love watching him respond to whatever that thing is. The world through Isaac’s eyes is just beautiful. I DON’T love that potty training isn’t a done deal, that meltdowns in public are more likely than not, and that sometimes the most basic things are a fight-to-the-finish. It’s not all sunshine and roses…but honestly it’s not the sunshine and roses that are changing me so much. It’s the hard parts that change me. It’s learning how to deal with the meltdowns, years of potty training, managing challenging behavior…those are the things that have left their mark. Those are the things that have forced me over and over and over again to grow.

And there are so many ways that Andrew has paved this path. Andrew’s quirks, by in large, are less prominent than Isaac’s…but as the first one through, he’s done a fantastic job of stretching me. I’ve learned so, so much from him. When the things I went through with Andrew, come around again with Isaac, I can clearly see the road Andrew, unknowingly, has paved. So much is easier with Isaac because of Andrew. It’s just a remarkable team I’ve been given. And the effect of one on another is something I’ve really taken time to appreciate this week.

When Andrew turned five my heart broke. It honestly felt very sharp, and shatter-y…but the truth is, my heart is not made of glass. It didn’t break the way a window or a mirror or a vase would. My heart, like yours, is a muscle. And it’s strange to me how much I’ve been thinking about this…my heart…but I have been, and it’s helped. My heart is a muscle and it’s just getting stronger and stronger.

And that’s pretty awesome.

Happy Mother’s Day to all of the lionhearted moms out there. But most of all, Happy Mother’s Day to my own fierce, lionhearted mama. :)

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I’ve been using the same recipe for birthday cake for a few years now. The kids both prefer vanilla cakes, and this vanilla cake, although, you know, is just vanilla…is SO SO good.

And this recipe is a workhorse for me. I mixed up the batter for cupcakes for Isaac’s party last Saturday. Then I mixed it up again and divided it between mini cupcakes for his class a tiny 6 inch round cake for our family. One recipe of batter made 24 regular sized cupcakes, or 48 minis and a mini 6 inch cake. It does it all!

And it’s REALLY good. The cupcakes have nice domed tops, they are moist and the flavor is fantastic.

Here’s the recipe!

Vanilla Birthday Cake (adapted from Passion for Baking, of course!)

1 cup softened butter
2 cups sugar
3 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
4 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 cups flour
1 1/2 cup milk

Mix together butter and sugar. Add in the eggs and extract and mix well. Sprinkle in powder and salt. Add in a cup of flour and a splash of the 1 1/2 cups milk and mix. Continue alternating flour and milk until you’ve added all 3 cups of flour and all of the milk. Mix really well.

Then…do whatever you want! Line a cupcake pan with cupcake wrappers…or oil and flour a cake pan, square, round, whatever you want to do. Preheat the oven to 350 and then the bigger the pan, the longer it’ll take to bake. It’s about 12 minutes for cupcakes and about 25 minutes for cake. But, check it with a toothpick to make sure it’s done.

Allow the cakes to cool and then decorate with your favorite frosting!

Enjoy!

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It’s been a wonderful five years. I can’t wait to see what’s ahead. :)

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On Saturday we celebrated Isaac’s fifth birthday with our friends. (His real birthday is tomorrow.)

For Andrew’s fifth birthday, I invited his whole class to a park and it marked the beginning of including school friends in birthdays. But…Isaac doesn’t really talk about his classmates…or seem to even know their names (that I can tell…) so family friends it was! And this group is a GREAT group to celebrate birthdays with. :)

We had lunch and cupcakes and made space specks for a little craft project.

And the kids played and played and played. The babies (and some of the adults!) took turns napping on my bed. One group went to the playground for a little while. Everyone seemed to have a really good time!

But now Isaac thinks that his birthday is over and the next one we’re celebrating is Andrew. But, Isaac, we’re not done with you yet kid. More birthday tomorrow, on your *real* birthday. Promise.

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This weekend we went to our first Autism related event. I didn’t realize that this was a family first for us, until Dave pointed it out as we were walking in. “How are you? This is a first for us. You ok?” “Oh! I’m totally fine!!” I said. We had done fundraising for Autism Speaks and signed up to attend the 5k they were hosting at Citifield.  I thought it would be really fun! 

But…honestly I was a little on edge. As we were parking, to get our attention and helpfully direct us the right way, the parking attendant yelled “AUTISM!!” at us and pointed to the parking lot. He was just doing his job…and I’m not sure there’d be a better way to handle something like that…but gosh, that rattled me. Then walking in and seeing how HUGE the crowd was and how the word “Autism!” was EVERYWHERE… I felt a little nervous and uneasy. Even the band on the jumbo stage had changed their lyrics to work the word “autism” or “autistic child” into the classics they were performing.

“Actually,” I said to Dave, “this is harder than I thought it would be.”

But, then we found our group.

And I felt more settled.

The crowd was enormous. There was a huge, huge turnout for this.

And the whole time the mood was really fun and positive and Andrew, one of the only kids from his school that showed up, got LOTS of attention from LOTS of people that know and love him.

And…we ran into these guys. Which was a pretty big highlight for Andrew. ;)

Part way through the walk, Andrew started a game of shadow tag…he ran from adult to adult saying “I got your shadow!” and the adults were so playful and joined right in. I keep thinking about Andrew’s little game of Shadow Tag (a game, he told us, that’s very hard play at noon). I love that he feels so comfortable with these people and that they are so good about his silly silliness. I’m just awash with gratitude today.

Especially for these three: his Kindergarten, First Grade and Second Grade teachers. He’s come sooo far…and they are a pretty big reason why.

Isaac probably enjoyed the Autism Speaks 5K the least of all of us. He’s not so good in crowds and has a little bit of a cold that was making him tired and crabby. But he did score an apple and orange from the refreshments table…so that was nice. ;)

And that’s a wrap. Beautiful day, great walk…but EXHAUSTING weekend. Expect another weekend post tomorrow with pics from Isaac’s birthday party! :)

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For part of the party decorations, Isaac painted a set of planets that are now hanging from the dining room ceiling (well…all except for Uranus…which has since fallen…must fix that!). He has a very set-in-stone idea about what color each of the planets are (is Uranus really purple?? Isaac insists that it is.) and he included some important details for some of them. Jupiter is not without its red eye and Mercury has some spotty bumps and he couldn’t rest until I stapled a ring around Saturn.

For each planet he painted two circles, which I stapled back to back. He wrote out labels on cards, which I glued to each corresponding planet.

And there you have it.

We are just about ready for his birthday party. And he is VERY excited. :)

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