Birthday Breakfast | Rainbow Heart Banana Pancakes

Yesterday was Maria's birthday. We celebrated her birthday on Saturday. She got a party with friends and a special breakfast with her bestie, Enzo. I think she had a really special day, at least she mentioned it on Sunday when she was peeing in the church bathroom. She sat there in the big toilet with a smile on her face and proclaimed "my party was beautiful and ugly." I asked her to elaborate. Apparently the the bee trap that was attached to one of the trees was ugly but the balloons made everything else beautiful.

This morning I watched the short videos I took of her opening her presents while Christian took her to her first day of preschool (my baby in preschool. Whaaaat?!). The videos are cute, it shows her and Enzo and their special relationship. For example, she wanted Enzo to open all of her presents for her. I tried to get her to open them but she wanted Enzo to do it and of course Enzo was thrilled to do it. I have to remind myself constantly to give them space. They obviously have a good thing going and it's even better when I don't interfere.

Enzo opened her presents and they enjoyed them together. Her aunt Sienna made her a cool Hello Kitty crayon case which she was thrilled about and sent her a Hello Kitty coloring book which she had Enzo color in for her because she doesn't like coloring outside of the lines. On Wednesday night I took Enzo to our local book store. He had been wanting to buy her 3 new books because she was turning 3. He picked her current favorite, The Pigeon Finds a Hotdog, and a Dr. Seuss pop- up-book, and a board book about mice. Her auntie Karen gave her an Angelina Ballerina stuffed mouse a couple months ago and she loves it so much, Enzo knew she would like a book with cute mice. He was right. When I was in NYC last month I went to Muji and picked up a sticker book and London in a Box for her. Her dad made her a play kitchen which she has been enjoying for over a week now. For her party I told guests that gifts were optional but that if they decided to bring something a book would be best. We don't have much space in our 2 bedroom apartment for new toys, but we always make room for books.

I think her presents were perfect and she definitely seemed to think so too.

For her special birthday breakfast I wanted to make heart-shaped something. She is really into hearts and also the colors pink and purple. Is this a surprise for you? It kind of is to me since we never encouraged pink and purple or hearts or princesses or any of those stereotypical girlie things. But we never encouraged Enzo to like trains and he did and he's fine. We figured she'll be fine is she likes hearts. Heck, I {heart} hearts! I thought rainbow hearts would be ideal and Enzo sure loved them, but she was only willing to eat the pink-redish heart and the purple one. She doesn't eat much anyway so I wasn't offended. As for the bacon I think it could have been dyed yellow and she still would of ate it. My baby does not discriminate against bacon.

I love Maria so much. I love that she is mine. She is such a great snuggler, always kissing and hugging us, and I love that she makes us feel so lucky to have her as ours. I love that she is smart and loves to learn. That she is fierce and has opinions. I love that every 5 minutes she changes her mind about what animal she is but always checks in to make sure I am o.k with her animal choices because she only wanst to be that animal if I am willing to be the mama version of that animal. Just today we were horses, bears, koalas, and unicorns. Maria loves people. She loves having friends, real and imaginary. She really loves ice-cream. She loves books and I love reading to her. She adores her papai and her big brother and spends a long time on the phone, every weekend, talking to my mom and her cousin Bruno in Brazil.

The day she was born was one of the happiest days of my life. I just felt so happy, so complete. I remember feeling like I was swimming in an ocean of bliss. It felt so right to have her in our family. I am so glad she's in our family. I'm so glad I get to be her mama and she my Baby Maria

Rainbow Heart Banana Pancakes
printable version

(makes 12 small 3-inch hearts + 12 medium 5-inch pancakes)

2 large eggs
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups buttermilk
3 mashed ripe bananas
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup vegetable oil
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
food coloring

1. In a medium bowl beat the eggs until fluffy. You can use an electric mixer or a wooden spoons. Mix in the remaining ingredients, except the food coloring, until smooth.
2. Heat skillet over medium-low heat and grease with oil or butter if necessary.
3. Measure 3/4 cup of batter into a cup and mix with red food coloring. Place your metal heart shaped cookie cutter on the skillet and pour a couple tablespoons of red batter inside the heart. Cook pancake until puffed and dry around the edges. Carefully remove the metal cookie cutter and turn and cook other side until golden brown on top. 
4. Repeat with the different colors. Depending on what kind of food coloring you're using and also what brand you're using you need to play around with it to get the color you want. Usually in the back of the food coloring box it will tell you how many drops of dye you need to make a certain color. I omitted violet because it looked so much like purple.