Making a Cake in the Oven

In Chinese, we have a saying, "Did you make a cake?" which actually means did you just make a cake (take a dump) in your kitchen (in the bathroom). When my brother and I were growing up and our cousins lived with us for a few years, I recall us using that phrase a lot, especially if someone would disappear for a while or come out of the bathroom with a look of pure relief and satisfaction and one whiff of the now open door would convey something poopy had happened (we had not yet discovered the magic of matches). Hehe. Get it? The poop you accumulate is supposed to be like a big chocolate cake - imagine that!

What's funny about that is when I learned the concept of a diaper cake, it made perfect sense in the Chinese sense.... cuz diapers are for poop so a diaper cake is for your poop and - yeah, don't make me go on.

I'm not sure why this amuses me so, but it's like the diaper game that many play at baby showers where you melt different chocolates, caramel, or nuts, even some marshmallows and put it in different diapers for the guests to smell and guess what it really is. Gross right? But all too funny and a great photo op - until you have to deal with the real thing.

Poop fascinates me in the sense that I want to know what each type of poop means - am I eating something bad, am I eating too many greens (when I get green poop, and I googled it - it's not because I drink purple Gatorade folks, it's because I just eat a lot of greens!), have I not been eating a well balanced diet, am I dehydrated? In fact, Oprah once did an entire segment on poop and at work a few weeks later, one of my senior managers was enthralled and updated us on this which he had learned from his wife.

Just recently, I read that you should know what kind of poops to be on the look out for as it applies to your baby. The different smells, textures and consistency of each poop can say a lot about your baby's diet and diarrhea in a baby is something you definitely want to avoid! They say breast fed babies have better smelling poop, the formula babies have funky tan poops that are quite stinky, but what I'm even more scared of, is that somehow my baby boy might be a hyper toddler who goes after his own poop and smears it all over the walls or eats it! Hey, it happens - I've heard true life stories of this and I'm not laughing yet - because it may very well be me.

Oh diapers - they will soon become such a staple part of my life. Today, I had to email my sister-in-law to ask her about the different diaper sizes I should stock up on because at long last, the Costco coupons this month are featuring not only the Kirkland diapers, but the baby wipes too! (Cha-ching, double bonus for us!!) In order to smooth our costs over the course of our baby's pooping lifetime, we have already begun to purchase some baby wipes (not at the coupon price though... what a bummer, I had to take a risk though and start stocking up) and I am anticipating our next trip to Costco for these discounted goods! Only problem is, I couldn't recall her advice - which size to purchase, how much to get, etc. I did recall that she advised against the Huggies brand but since I have about half a package leftover from a diaper cake I made for a co-worker (oodles of fun, so easy and festive!), I couldn't avoid having some leftover inventory of Huggies diapers. But to complicate things more, another co-worker told me she did a cost analysis that proved the Up brand from Target was actually cheaper per diaper compared to the Costco discounts (though I'd have to go back and ask her if this was at the coupon applied price or the original retail Costco price). So much to think about.

Next on my list of baby stuff to do - the baby creams, baby shampoo, baby wash, baby powder, baby lotion, baby detergent, baby safety kit, baby medications, baby house-proofing kit, baby bottles, baby pacifiers, baby bibs, baby spoons, baby food, I'm pretty pooped just thinking about it but also, oddly, very excited for all the things I can create a checklist for and cross off my list.

For today... diapers.... check! For now, I leave you with my first ever diaper cake! Next time, I will go with cuter ribbon and color combos (maybe some polka dots?!), and maybe some felt 3-D tag alongs for the ribbon instead of the mini baby items that I had to glue gun an extended paper clip for (you have to improvise when you get to the office and your cake is not finalized!). And, I wasn't a fan of the stuffed bunny but at 7 AM, not a lot of stores are open for your last minute diaper toppings, so CVS's selection was not that great.


It's diaperlicious. Diaperrific. Diaperendous!