How do you get icing out of an ear?

When Abby turned 1, we had a huge party and invited everyone we knew. 50 people stood shoulder to shoulder in our living room while we set the smash cake down in front of Abby. We stood poised with cameras, ready to capture Abby destroying her cake. Only, nothing happened. She was having none of that messy business. Finally I just pushed her hands down into the cake, and she just gave me a dirty look and started licking her hands clean.

As Ethan's birthday neared, we took a much more practical approach. We invited just a few friends and our immediate family over, and it was a much more relaxed day. As we sat Ethan down into the same high chair we had put Abby in almost 3 years prior, I couldn't help but wonder if we would again be staring at a clean, annoyed child. I needn't have been concerned.

Oh, but he had a ball. He just could not believe that we let him get away with this, but he wasn't about to wait and make sure. He was covered--he even had icing in his ears. I now have a one year old boy, who is semi-walking and has only the faintest tinge of blue to his skin.

Said boy is having tubes put in his ears this Wednesday to get rid of his constant ear infections. We are SO ready for it. Abby is doing well, despite her insistence that because both her leg and back hurt this morning, she is "falling apart."