Butter Lane Cupcakes

a while ago my sister and i bought cupcake classes from butter lane cupcakes. a few weeks ago i was up in nyc visiting her and we decided to cash in. the class itself was super elementary but it ended up being fun anyway. the cupcakes were super sweet but that of course didn't stop us from indulging.

 

butter lane is located in east village. i love that part of town. i had never been there before but after walking around a while i was pretty much in love. it's so quirky and posh. do those two words even go together? i loved it though, i thought it was great, and this shop fit in perfect. a little hole in the wall with amazing old new york store front doors and large planking wood floors. very charming. 

 

you could make vanilla, chocolate or banana cupcakes. we went for the banana. the banana cupcakes were actually amazing, the icing was just a bit too sweet for my liking. and the fact that there were bananas in it made me feel a little bit better about eating them.

 

they taught us how to ice cupcakes, which was actually really helpful for me because i am the worst at that. believe it or not i even got a prize for "best iced cupcakes', which tells you a lot about all the other people's icing jobs (although i thought my sister should have won over me). 

the class wasn't exactly what i thought it would be but i walked away knowing how to better ice a cupcake and with 24 of them! yum. mark, leon and grayson appriciated it.

life with an 11 month old

yes, i said it. 11 months old! that's only one month from him being a one year old. how did this happen so fast!? i look at him and really cannot believe who he has become, or that such a small person can have such a large distinct personality. 

i have to be on my toes at all times, he is into eeeeeverything. 

in a matter of two weeks he went from sorta walking to practically running. he is all over the place like a little drunk man, and so very proud of himself. it is amazing how smart this child is. he watches you do something a few times and boom, he's doing it to. this weekend he walked over to the back door, opened it, and let himself out into the backyard. i just sort of stood there stunned at the fact that a child who is not even one years old figured out how to escape like that! 

he has a temper like a mad hornet. he knows what he wants and he wants it when he wants it and how he wants it. if he doesn't get his way (which i don't always let him) he lets you know he is pissed. he knows right from wrong and that "no" means he better not. he will test you and wait for your reaction every time though. he's not allowed to play with certain things and he will go up to it, very slowly move his hand towards it, all the while watching you. he waits for a reaction and laughs. so bad. 

























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pinching is his new favorite thing. he doesn't do it to hurt, he just thinks it's funny. he attacked poor mark the other day, he has the bruises to show it. this child is rough and wild, a total boy. i joke that i am going to be the mother always getting the phone calls "excuse me mrs. constantine, we had a bit of an incident with grayson today", but it just might be the truth. he has an endless amount of energy. 


he is also the sweetest little boy though. he adores animals. no one gets kissed as much as the dogs do. cherrio runs like a madman to avoid him but pancake (who up until recently was not at all a fan) will lay there and let him pull on her legs and "pet" her belly. 


he eats like a teenager. full adult size meals- all day long. baby food is a fight, he wants solid food that he can feed himself. he doesn't know how just yet to get the food onto the fork and into his mouth but he tries and one day in the not so far future he will get it. almost all of my meals are shared these days. sometimes i don't even get a meal because he eats all of it! poor boy also ended up with his mama's sweet-tooth. 


when he is tired he tucks him arms into you and rolls his body onto yours so that his face is burrowed into your chest. it's one of my favorite things. we finally seem to have a bit of a napping schedule. he is up by 6am most days but will sometimes lay in bed with me till 7. around 10 he will take a nap for me. a crib nap (as opposed to having to hold him like i did before)! i never know how long it will last so during that time i am like a woman on speed. i try and get as many things done as fast as i can because once he is up he probably won't nap again, unless it's a late afternoon car nap. 


i must say though, i kind of love who is turning into. he keeps me very busy and i cannot look away for even a moment (the other day i walked into the kitchen for a split second and when i came back he had climbed onto a pillow, onto the couch, onto the end table!) but most days that's okay. i enjoy watching him learn and discover things. it's so much more fun now that he is walking. everything is so much more fun for him now. 

walking

grayson took his first unassisted official steps a few months ago. he didn't even realize he did it. when he did it again he took notice and was pretty persistent in learning. he got up to about 3 or 4 steps at a time before he would get so excited it would throw him off balance. then he just kind of stopped trying, for whatever reason. he's not even interested in using his walker anymore. i figure once he is ready again he will probably just take off running. i'm not worried about it and i'm certainly not pushing either. every once and a while though he decides to give it a go. this time i was lucky enough to catch the excitement.

i absolutely adore these photos. 

baby obsessions

we got a sampler dvd sent to us in the mail with baby einstein video clips. 

grayson is hooked! he actually cries when the video is over.

its only about 10 minutes long but for those minutes he is totally consumed. he loves it! and i will admit, the other day while i was desperately trying to get some housework done, i loved it too! 

i am not crazy about grayson sitting infront of a screen watching videos but the barnyard dvd clip is really great. he loves animals and teaching him the names and sounds they make are something we work on a lot so it's perfect for that. 

wanna give us a vote? we would love that.