Rainbow shag cake and Will's 3rd birthday

I don't think about almost giving Will up every day anymore, but the memories were creeping in as Will's third birthday approached. Three years later, what sticks in my mind are those last five minutes or so before they reversed the diagnosis, and also the conversations we had with the higher ups at the hospital months later. The head of OBGYN at our local hospital was so condescending and dismissive, and sometimes I wish I had had better words to tell her how she could help us instead of what she actually said, which was so unhelpful. Sometimes I think about the geneticist who was rubbing her super pregnant belly the whole time she was telling me how hopeless the fetus in my belly was. I am clearly not over it completely, and maybe I never will be fully. 

But when my mind goes through all these moments, I always end with the very last meeting we had with the head of the hospital and the head of radiation. The result of that last meeting was that our hospital agreed to permanently change their practices so no one had to go through what we did. I felt so heard and understood, and I felt like these two super educated and busy and strong women were so compassionate. I learned a lot about how to listen in that meeting from these two doctors. So grateful. 

Anyways, this cake!! Will had been asking for a "paw patrol mission paw lookout cake" over and over again. And I wanted to try a shag cake. So I made this cake, Jon printed out a lookout tower, and we stuck it on top. Will loved it, though he later asked me where his real cake was. The shag icing was super easy to do. I just bought a two dollar grass tip, and kept changing the colour in my icing bag. 

If I'm honest, the cake didn't taste great. I find if the colours of the icing are bright like this, all you really taste is the food dye. And the shag made the icing extra crusty, which I found pretty unappealing. But I'm glad I tried it for sure. 

Will at three:

- He just started preschool three mornings a week. He never seems that excited to go, but then he goes right in with no tears. I think he likes it! 

- The potty training is happening. I would guess we are averaging one accident a day. For us, that feels pretty good. 

- He asked for a Barbie food truck for his birthday, and loves playing with it with his dragons and other toys.

- He answers many questions with "kinda." Like, did you have fun at school today? Kinda. Are you hungry? Kinda. Was Grace at school today? Kinda. 

- He loves eating tons of fruit. He can eat so many peaches, oranges, apples, pears. He is significantly less interested in supper.