Old Swampy, New Hobbies

So remember last week when Jericho was scheduled for a visit from Mary Jo, the lady from EDIS? Well, she came last Wednesday morning, "talked" to Jericho for a little while, used some sign language and played with us in the playroom. Turns out, Jericho's communication is just fine. Mary Jo said not to be surprised if he just wakes up one day and explodes with words. She gave me some pointers on helping him learn to form words and suggested a line of baby signing DVDs, which we've already picked up from the library and watched a few times. This kid amazes me every day! She also suggested I take a few toys out of his playroom so that there's not so much "going on," meaning he learns to make his own noises for his toy trucks and he doesn't go bouncing from toy to toy to toy. This would help him to be more focused and able to concentrate on playing with one toy longer instead of becoming bored easily. Makes sense to me.

Last Monday, some of the guys of Battle Company left for Aviano for field training, my husband included. Since we got back from the States, I've gotten into baking more, specifically baking and decorating cupcakes. I was able to get an awesome cupcake decorating book (thank you for the stop at Menard's, Amy!) and I have some great ideas to try out on Michael and his platoon. My first attempt was "Old Swampy," an alligator made out of 24 cupcakes, 2 cups of green tinted vanilla frosting, sugar-dipped peach ring candy, 100-Calorie Oreo crackers and mini-marshmallows. Here's the end result:

I ended up making more for the tail, a total of 30 cupcakes, just in case I lost some in transport, which did happen. Michael thinks it's a pretty cool new hobby to get into, and I really enjoyed seeing the guys' faces when they first saw the alligator. And they were pretty stoked to learn that it was just for them. I'm already looking at ideas for the next training rotation!

See ya!