Oh, my Crickie. Today is all about you. (Let’s be honest, this whole month has been about you!) This morning you snuggled into bed next to me and when I reminded you it was your birthday, you asked if you could have a birthday but still be three and a half. You want to stay little, and I’m not arguing!
Seriously, though, you have been using the “because it’s my birthday” line for weeks now, and I’ve pretty much given in to most of your requests. When we first started talking about what kind of cake you wanted for your fourth birthday, you were set on a bunnicorn cake (a bunny with a unicorn horn, an amazing figment of your intense imagination). I was inspired by your creativity and ready to rock a killer bunnicorn for you, but then you changed your mind. (Surprise, surprise.) Next it was a wedding cake for your marriage to Colton, complete with tiers and a little man + woman on top. I kinda’ steered you away from that dream (for fear of restraining orders from the poor boy’s parents), and eventually you landed on an LOL Mermaid Doll cake. In fact, you declared that LOL Mermaids was to be the official theme of your day. (Your real party is going to be later on, when it’s warmer, and in conjunction with E.V.’s party like last year, so preschool lunch was your opportunity to celebrate with friends today.) I figured I could handle that easily.
Yeah, right.
I made you a three-layer cake with lemon poppyseed (your favorite), blueberry, strawberry muffin mix because your preschool doesn’t allow cake — but they do allow muffins, and I like to test limits. ;) I bought little sugar mermaid tails to add a bit of color to the muffin cake, and then decided I could make my own fondant LOL Mermaid for the main decoration. For weeks you’ve been carrying around this little card stock image of an LOL Mermaid with turquoise hair and a pearl necklace, so I stayed up late one night and painted up my best version of her on fondant. I was so excited — it looked pretty much like the image! #momwin. In the morning I showed it to E.V., who was also impressed at my efforts.
And then.
And then I walked you into school and mentioned that I had worked on your LOL cake while you slept. You beamed at me and started chattering on about how the mermaid should have pink hair and pigtails and a blue tail and no feet. Huh? I corrected you, reminded you of the mermaid you’ve been going all googley-eyed over for the past few weeks, and you fell out. Like, threw a fit. “But that’s not what I imagined in my heart,” you whined with a stink face. I had to pull your ungrateful little hiney into a side room and talk to you about being thankful and grateful (and to threaten to cancel your birthday, because I’m good at parenting like that). You straightened yourself up, took a deep breath, and brought on your finest assault — a teeny, tiny voice and puppy dog eyes — as you sweetly explained your vision and begged me for a new mermaid. Sigh. And I reminded myself that “I’m not like the other moms; I’m a cool mom.”
And I started over.
Thankfully the second mermaid was a little faster (and better) than the first, and I decided to add both to your cake because, heck, I DID the other one already. And then I presented your muffin cake to you, complete with double LOLs and a candle “4” that will never be lit (because, well, preschoolers) and held my breath as you opened your eyes…
…and you squealed with joy!
So worth it. Your smile, your excitement, your joy — they were worth the extra effort and time because I’m the mom, the maker of the magic. And of the cakes.
