Today our son turns 8!

Time has flown by so fast. J2 was born beet red, kicking and screaming (which he didn’t stop until he was 6 months old). He would cry until 4 in the morning. For the first 6 months, he and I slept in a rocking chair in the living room so that the rest of the house could attempt some sleep in between and everytime Daddy tried to pick him up he would scream which made Daddy cry! I would beg the pediatrician to help me figure out what was wrong. He did not seem to have gas pains, I gave him enough Mylicon to de-gas Chevron!

When he was born, the OB feared he was in distress and hooked a fetal monitor wire just under his scalp. The poor baby still has a small bump on top of his head from the experience. Even tho the docs don’t believe it, I still think the reason he cried like that is he must have had such terrible pain from it. As he aged, his favorite way to fall asleep was to have his head gently rubbed. I’ll always remember that heavenly look of his when I would rub his head and his eyes would roll back in his head. Now, at 8, he still asks for his head to be rubbed!

After his first six months, he turned into the sweetest, most loveable boy! Happy all the time and he has a great sense of humor! He and Daddy have been inseperable ever since! (There are so many wonderful pics of you smiling that I had a hard time to pick, but this is one of my favorites! My Very Own Little Elfin!)

We held his Birthday Party on Saturday. He requested a Spiderman / Star Trek Birthday. Walmart was out of Spiderman cakes, so we bought the Wilton cake pan for Spiderman. It was alot of fun but I was up until 4 AM on Friday night trying to mix black icing! Not a pretty sight. I luckily had a bottle of black dye from our oldest’s Power Puff Birthday – He loved the green one until he got old enough to realize they were girls! lol. My fingers are still a bluish purple color, but it was a great deal of fun to make! I also baked an oval cake in a casserole dish and decorated it with the Star Trek Voyager Logo in tan and gold icing. Which I then covered in web as if the spiderman had caught the logo in his web. Originally I printed the Star Trek Voyager Ship blueprints and was going to attempt to make the ship, but alas, at midnight, I had enough sense not to even go there!

Here is the cake:

Note: The foundation icing was supposed to be light blue, but when you mix light blue dye with buttercream frosting you get a Tiffany Blue! I thought it was pretty and he didn’t seem to mind. Makes me want a Tiffany Box cake for my birthday!!!! (Ahem… Slobo?)

As part of the party gifts, I made the kids Star Trek Costumes. They are made of black knit from JoAnne’s (they have costume knit now at 3.95 a yard) I used a bias cut satin for the colors at the top and embroidered the Star Trek Logo on a muslin in gold and tan thread for the communicator logos. I used Steam a Seam to apply them to the costumes and then just top stitched around to secure them permanently.

The jumpsuits for the two smaller ones are from an astronaut jumpsuit pattern and the oldest ones’ is just a pant and long sleeve top pattern joined. I used a 12-14″ invisible zipper on the fronts. I didn’t get them hemmed in time, but the kids don’t care – and hey – most halloween costumes aren’t hemmed anyway, so I think I’ll leave them that way! The only thing I wish I had done different was to crop the sleeve satin shorter. I used a mirror of the sleeve scye on them and wish I had just cut them straight across. But – who knew! I should’ve been watching Voyager so I would know these things!

Here’s a pic of the Voyager Crew (L to R) Tom Paris, Tuvok and the Holographic Doctor: