Yesterday was Jay's birthday, so Nan and I decided to bake him a birthday cake. Rather, I decided to bake him a birthday cake and Nan sat at the counter and looked at some cheapo shape and color flashcards I picked up at Target. His favorite is german chocolate cake, so naturally I decided to bake a caramel apple upside-down cake. (Don't worry... he'll get his cake. I plan to bake the german chocolate one for his party on Saturday.) I had some apples that were about to go bad, so after some internet searching, the caramel apple cake seemed ideal. Silly me. I thought it looked easy. I ended up with four dirty pans and apple detrius all over the kitchen. And a crabby toddler who wanted to HELP NOW, MOMMY!! Sadly, there wasn't much she could do to help-- she couldn't peel or slice the apples, she couldn't make the carmel sauce on the stove, and I mixed the few ingredients for the cake portion in my Kitchenaid. She /did/ get to press the apple slices into the carmel sauce at the bottom of the pan, and that was super fun for her. She wanted to eat the cake right away, and was a little unhappy when Mommy explained that she had to wait for it to bake. I then moved onto dinner prep-- steaks with dijon-rosemary marinade, and bleu cheese spaghetti. Nan decided to "help" with dinner, too. Sigh. It involved her dropping the flash cards from great heights, crying and trying to reach the cards, me stopping what I was doing to retrieve the cards, and repeat ad infintum. Finally, Jay finished the video game he was playing (it was his birthday-- I let him play unmolested) and coaxed her into the living room. Then, GRANDMA arrived, and she was sufficently distracted for me to finish the meal. Dinner came together well, and the cake smelled heavenly. It tasted good, too-- to everyone but Nan. She took a bite, declared it "yucky" and refused to eat anymore. (She did, however, enjoy the bleu cheese spaghetti-- I was surprised! A rather potent taste for a two-year-old.) Oh, well. More for me. And Jay, of course.