I'm more excited

Is it sad that I'm more excited about our first day of schooling at home (sept 4th) than I am about my baby girl turning a year old (aug 29th)?

:roll:

Awes. Happy Birthday to your youngest and have fun homeschooling.

It is hard to be excided about the first birthday because it is also sad as she becomes less and less a baby...

School is exciting though! :)

yeah, but I'm not even in a party planning mood still. I finally forced myself to schedule it and invite people, at least. But I have no desire to even think about decorations or the cake that I have to make from scratch due to her milk allergy...

Anyway, at least getting school started means that life is still going on. It's been a rough year emotionally for me and I need to get into a routine so I have something to look forward to on a regular basis.

Nell, can she not have baked milk in the cake itself? Despite Natalie's confired allergies, we were told to still keep feeing her baked milk to help her overcome the allergy eventually. I still have to make it from scratch though because of the frosting. What frosting recipe do you use?

I'm not sure. We don't have a confirmed allergy still, but when she was 6 weeks I went completely dairy free, then sometime between 8 and 10 weeks (can't remember for sure) I got sick and DH made me chicken noodle soup from scratch, but the bouillon cubes had butter oil (didn't realize) and 1 small serving had her not pooping for 4 days. She's less sensitive than she used to be, I can eat dairy products once a week and it doesn't affect her (any more than that and it does), but I'm VERY cautious of how it will affect her when she has a more direct source.

I'm going to ask her ped at her 1 year check up for a referral to an allergist, but I really have no clue who to see and my doc has always asked me for a name when I ask for a referral to anywhere. I need to look into that.

Good luck making a cake. We need pictures.

Thank you.

I made both the boys's birthday cakes this year from scratch... dairy free.

Oh, here's the recipe I am using:

Yellow Cake - Dairy Free Yellow Cake Recipe

Buttercream Frosting - Dairy-Free Buttercream Frosting Recipe

The cake is a bit heavier than box cake (what I'm used to making), but it was fairly easy to work with.

What I found with the frosting is that if I let the "butter" sit out of the fridge and loosen up (I use Earth Balance Original), it creams easier, but it still doesn't cream like real butter. Oh, and the frosting warms up really quickly, so it can be finicky in hot weather.

Here are the pictures of the boy's cakes this year.

http://i134.photobucket.com/albums/q...44666383_o.jpg

http://i134.photobucket.com/albums/q...74046947_n.jpg

I use these to decorate with

http://sprinklesandgrins.com/portals...tingicings.jpg
They don't have dairy in them, and I am pretty sure they are peanut free, but you'd better check them yourself if you are thinking of using them, Stephanie.

I will have to try those recipes sometime. The frosting recipe I use is pretty simple, uses vegetable shortening instead of butter. We really like it.

Super cute cakes!