Why must I be completely insane, you ask? This is what I did at 4 o’clock in the morning!
I couldn’t sleep because I’ve been plagued by an over-active mind. I ended up cleaning my kitchen at 3AM and then once I was done, I decided it would be a good idea to BAKE! That’s what I do when I can’t sleep. I clean and bake.
I really don’t know why I bake. I don’t even like eating baked goods. Perhaps it’s the sheer fascination with creating beautiful things for others to enjoy. Maybe that’s what I love about baking. I always end up giving my baked goods away or bringing them to dinner parties or community events.
I’ve decided that I want to learn how to decorate cupcakes. Why? I have no idea. I came up with this design. I piped petals out of icing and used chocolate chips for the centre of the flowers. Making the leaves was the fun part. I fashioned each leaf individually and even drew the veins in with a knife.
Along with teaching myself how to decorate cupcakes, I’d like to teach Little One sign language. It’s something I thought was interesting and even good for Little One’s development. I’ll let you know how that goes!
My piping skills leave a lot to be desired. The petals looked better before the photos were taken. Oh, well. Not bad for my first attempt. Hubby was impressed.
If I ever give you a basket full of decorative cupcakes, a Red Currant-Rhubarb torte or a Chocolate Swirl Cheesecake, you’ll know I had insomnia or a lot on my mind!
**Updated to add:**
While I was cooking supper, Little One decided to be helpful and Swiffer the kitchen floor for me. Sweet, isn’t she?
Meanwhile, if I weren’t crazy enough to bake cupcakes at 4AM, I decided to make homemade whole wheat lasagna noodles for our lasagna tonight. 
Mmmmm! Homemade spinach and ricotta cheese lasagna!
Little One thoroughly enjoyed it!
Little One: AKALasagna Face!
yum yum alert! can i keep you in my kitchen? i would love to try making my own lasagna noodles. the spinach and ricotta lasagna is right up my alley, girl.
i can’t believe you were up at 4am baking!
Great cupcakes! I love the flowers, petals and all. I am sure they were delicious too! And I keep meaning to try home made pasta, but just don’t seem to do it. Lasagna looks so yummy. Little One obviously things it is too.
Patti:
Hey! We missed you and Samantha today!! We had a few people over for lunch and birthday cake. I saved a cupcake and some cake for you and Samantha. Friday works out since it’s the only day Little One and I will be home during the day this week! Give me a shout and let me know what time works best for you.
As for the getting messy when she eats…Yeah, it was HARD for me to let her get that messy. It still is hard for me to see her make such a mess! I used to feed her with a spoon all the time, but she needs to learn how to feed herself. I let her hold her spoon so she can eat with it, but she usually just drops it and uses her hands! LOL! I guess she realizes how much faster it is to not use a spoon? LOL!
Oh, I DON’T let her make mess like that when we’re at other people’s houses or when we’re at restaurants!!!! LOL! If we’re out and whatever she’s eating is messy, I usually feed her with a spoon.
Love the cupcakes! And that pic of Little One licking the lasagna off her fingers… Priceless! I, however could not bring myself to allow my child to get that dirty. I guess that’s just a quirk of mine. Mike and I often clash when it comes to letting samantha eat with her hands. I prefer to feed her from a spoon, but Mike would rather let her dig in herself! I know, I know, she needs to learn to feed herself, but the mess it creates… I’m tired even thinking about it.
Happy birthday *corrected* to Little One. Sorry I couldn’t make it. I didn’t check facebook till now. Perhaps Friday? Let me know. And in the meantime, keep baking! It looks delicious!! Lucky hubby you have!! I won’t show Mike this, cuz then he’ll expect me to do the same thing for him!! See what you’ve done?! lol…
Take care
Canine:
No worries! Let Bert know that I should be home in the mornings on Thu and Fri. Sat and Sun I’m not at home in the morning. Sun evening I should be in. If anything, he can leave a message and I can call Bert back. Sooooooo excited about you guys coming to visit!!!!!
Frau:
Smart for getting a plastic feeding seat! I sometimes take the seat cover off of Little One’s so I can just wipe it down with baby wipes or a wet face cloth too. The fabric seat cover is nice and comfy for her, but it’s a pain to have to wash it all the time! 🙂
hi c – sorry bert didn’t call u last week. he will call you this week. he has more free time in the morning (since i have work)…
he will let you know our dates (we booked the tix).
needs to ask you some q’s as well.
about your daughter – make her think that cleaning is FUN! ha ha! so cute – i love that photo!!!!
Joseph’s feeding seat is plastic & I just wipe it down with baby wipes when he’s done.
I usually feed him breakfast while he’s still in his pjs (so I don’t have to worry about him getting his clothes dirty) & after his dinner I put him in pjs for the night, but it’s lunch where I really try to keep his clothes clean–but sometimes I still have to change his outfit after lunch, LOL!
Frau:
I TOTALLY know what you mean! Initially, it KILLED ME to let her eat on her own and make the mess that she does!!! I’m pretty anal about the mess and had to just try to suck it up and let her be. It really is good for them to learn about food and textures…and to be able to use their motor skills and explore. Hard for us Mommies though! Thank goodness for washable high chair seats! Hers comes right off and I just throw it in the wash!
It’s really hard for me to let my son make such a mess while trying to feed himself finger foods, but I let him cuz I think it’s really important for him to learn & for his development overall speaking. But oh does the cleanup time gross me out, especially when it’s all in between his little fingers & smeared all over his pants!!
Canine:
How’s that for child labour?! Making a 14 month old clean the floors! LOL! By the time you guys come (in FOUR months!!), she will already be walking on her own! Oh my!
Jimmy:
Lasagna…it does the body good! LOL! Too funny! It looks like she slathered it all over herself! My cousin was looking at my Facebook pics and I have a pic of Little One with lasagna ALL OVER her face. My cousin said, “Why did you throw lasagna on her!?!?!” LOL!!
Now, Jimmy…You mustn’t be all that uncivil if you said that Little One is “adorable”!! You are really a big softie deep down, aren’t you?
Maybe I should have said “big teddy bear” instead of “big softie” because you would have said something smart in return and this is a G-Rated blog! LOL! ;p
Cherry:
I think the early morning baking has finally caught up with me, because I am EXHAUSTED today! Oh, we went swimming and then ran errands and then went to a birthday party. That probably wiped me out too!
I value sleep a lot more now than when I was younger…and before I had a baby! LOL!
Did you suffer from insomnia even before you were pregnant? I remember having insomnia BIG TIME when I was pregnant! I used to even stay up watching infomercials on TV! THAT seemed to knock me out within minutes! LOL! 😉
Hotmommy:
Hmmm…Don’t think I’m nesting! I don’t know what’s gotten into me though. Cooking up a storm and baking in the wee hours of the morn’!
J:
I love cooking and baking…but I’m not so much a fan of eating desserts (unless it’s key lime pie! LOL!).
Awww! Thanks for that comment. You just made my day 🙂 In the beginning, I fed her and wouldn’t let her feed herself because she was so messy! She still is. Then I realized that she NEEDS to be able to do this. This is how babies learn. Sure, it’s a lot of extra work for me to have to clean everything after meals, but it’s good for her development.
Lemme tell ya, the kid has a healthy appetite! LOL!
hi c! omg, so cute! that’s right! make her clean!!!!! ha ha!
i can’t believe you did al that at 4 in the morning! you are superwoman!
word ver:
outers
(as opposed to ‘inners’?)
Lasagna…it does a body good!!!!LOL! All that food is making me so hungry! Little one is so adorable!
I am prone to insomnia but I’m usually obsessed with going back to sleep so if I get up its to meditate or do some yoga to hopefully get back to sleep. Sometimes I think I should be productive but then I end up awake and wired just to crash later in the day. Cupcake baking looks so much more fun!
Those cupcakes are really really cute and creative.
HA! Word verf – olocake
that was me in the last post-hotmommy
hilarious how her face is covered with pasta sauce! i have a question- whaddup with all the crazy cooking, girl? i’m wth john- are you nesting?
I’m not a fan of baking, so your cupcakes look WAY too difficult to me! But they are gorgeous, and if I were there I’d eat one. Or two. You know, to be polite. 😉
I love little one swiffering! I remember wanting SO badly to mop, and my mom not letting me because I might hurt myself. I wish we had swiffers back then! They’re much lighter than a big heavy mop, and you KNOW I wouldn’t have been satisfied with pushing a dry mop around. 😉
Also loving that you made your own noodles, and how L.O. is enjoying the heck out of them! You’re an awesome mom, letting her get dirty like that. So many parents wouldn’t do that, and would worry about the mess. They enjoy themselves more and learn more if you let go of all that. Yay you!
Jackie:
Really? I had no idea! Wow! That’s interesting! I may have to pick your brain about it sometime. I’m really excited to teach Little One how to sign.
oh i love the face on little one!
My oldest started to learn sign language as it was a good way to get them to communicate. He went to speech therapy for a long time as he didn’t start to talk till really late so he would sign to me.
Jane:
I can tell you that before I got married and became a Mom, I really wasn’t a great cook! I was okay, but when I was a teenager, I was horrible! I once tried to bake chicken and rolled the chicken in SALT!!! Then I baked it until it was golden brown. It was so…SALTY! LOL! It was gross. I guess one has to learn somewhere though!
It was only when I was in my mid 20s that I became interested in cooking. I guess that’s the key…being interested. Maybe it was out of necessity too. LOL!
Dina:
Funny, when you and I were roomies I didn’t do much baking! I remember making apple crisp for Sam because it was always one of her requests! Other than that, I don’t recall doing much baking at all. YOU made the best cookies!!! Ooooh…and you also made the BEST meat balls EVER!!!
Barb:
I think you hit the nail right on its head with that comment! When I can’t sleep, usually it’s due to stress. LOL!
Too bad you don’t live closer. I’d send some cupcakes over your way! xo
Frau Guten Tag:
My husband wasn’t extremely pleased that I was up at 3AM cleaning and then baking at 4AM! He’s a light sleeper and has to get up for work at 6AM. Fortunately for me, Little One wakes up around 9 or 9:30AM.
When Hubby realized I had done some baking, all was well! LOL!
You are such an inspiration, C! I always so seriously impressed by what you do. It gives me hope for myself in the kitchen, knowing a lot of what you do is self-taught! And at 4 in the morning!? INCREDIBLE LADY!!!
xxoo!
yummy!!! those cupcakes look fantastic! i can’t believe I have a 4am baker friend and we didn’t even know it!! i’ve been known to do things like that too at weird hours- last time I made a very labour intensive lasagna at 3am- it was SOOO good!
I love that you bake or clean when you can’t sleep. I usually do those things when I am stressed out. Your cupcakes look great. Wish I could reach into the computer and take a nibble! 🙂
Peace!
while I rarely have insomnia, I would sure love to be able to get cleaning done, BUT my house is so small that that would be impossible, since noise made in the kitchen (or any other room for that matter) would be sure to wake everyone up…..maybe someday we’ll be able to get a bigger house………
Calfkeeper:
Wish you lived closer too! I’d send over baked goods AND maybe you could help me chase and round up run away cattle! LOL! Oh, and I’d do the same for you, of course! LOL! xoxo
Those look yummy! And really cute. Hey, the early AMs are a great for creative juices to flow. Bake away! Wish I were close enough to get some! 🙂