Sixteen Months

Blake is sixteen months old today.  

He is busy, busy, busy.  

He is also my little cuddler.

I still think of him as my baby, especially on the rare occasions when he sleeps.

I can't imagine having another baby right now, but 16 months ago, I had a newborn and a 16 month old.

Sixteen months ago, I looked like this:

He looked like this:

She looked like this:

We looked like this:

And they looked like this:

Sixteen months later, they look like this:

It took an actual live shark to get them to stand still long enough to be in a photograph together.

Whenever we go out in public with the kids in the stroller, multiple strangers ask about our twins.  "Oh, twins!  How old are they?"   I think we should go to the mall tomorrow night, just so I can answer, "Actually, they aren't twins.  In fact, she is twice as old as him."  Yep, I think I'm pretty funny. 

When I got home from work, my fake twins were still napping.  I decided bake, and randomly chose a recipe for peanut butter swirl brownies, out of the Martha Stewart's Cookies cookbook.  

Notice the sparkly pink spatula.  It's been mixing my batters and making my kitchen a glittery, happy place since 2007.

These brownies are very rich, but delicious.  Mine took about 40 minutes to bake.   While I was making them, the peanut butter/chocolate combo reminded me of a cake my mom made the day after Blake was born.  I'm pretty sure this cake was the reason why I avoided post-partum depression with baby #2.   Or maybe it was the significantly less complicated delivery, easier breastfeeding, or months of parenting experience under my belt.  Nope, pretty sure it was the cake.  The hospital should hand them out to every new mom.

My version of my mom's peanut butter chocolate cake

After pondering the virtues of this flavor combination, I opened Facebook to find this picture on my Newsfeed.

Chocolate cake with peanut butter cups and caramel sauce

Apparently my mom was feeling nostalgic today too.