On Birthday Cake and Why You Should Eat It.

You should most definitely, absolutely always, eat cake at your child’s birthday party.

No matter what weight loss plan you are on, when serving cake to all those tiny friends of your little, go ahead and serve yourself a little one too.

Because whether you delivered them after hours of rhythmic breathing, your loudest wail mingling with their very first cry–
or you lie in forced paralysis in a paper shower cap while a Doctor skillfully freed them from their tiny living quarters–
Today is your day too.

Maybe you stood in front of a judge and signed the most beautiful piece of paper ever with tears streaming and so much hope as you took them in your arms and turned to go home.

This day is just as much yours as it is theirs.

That is why as you stay up until midnight, hanging that funky pennant banner and blowing up balloons– you will still be smiling to remember their very first day. It wouldn’t be right if you didn’t greet their birthday bleary eyed and stumbling towards the french press– Just like every other beautifully exhausting day of parenting. You’ll be laying out ninja turtle napkins and green lemonade and their first little baby grunts will be echoing in your ears. Little hands grabbing fistfuls of air as they search for your warmth. It’s always been you, from the very beginning.From the first newborn diaper swallowing their wrinkly frame to the first time they giggled and shimmied out of your reach mid-change. They keep growing and we keep cheering them on.
We remember to put the candles on the cake all the while remembering their very first wobbly steps. We could no sooner forget the day they were born than our own names and each year that goes by we take plenty of photos with the camera, but we take still more with our minds.

First taste of sweet potatoes, Click. First roll-over, Click. First night in a big kid bed, Click. First trip to the zoo, Click. First day of school, Click, Sniff. First, first, first–Click. We are the memory-keepers and whether you have found the time to keep all those moments in a Shutterfly book or you keep them all in your big mama heart, you keep them just the same. 

And even when they grow a little too big and our memory keeping gets quieter and more personal– to avoid the side-eye and the mortified whisper of “Mom!“– We will keep right on celebrating.
We will forever be, the faithful remember-ers.

We will celebrate every year on this day– yes; but even more so– all the beautiful anything but ordinary days in between.

So grab that slice of Cinderella cake and a pink plastic fork and dig in to that slice of sugary goodness– and make sure they see you celebrating it all. You can eat salad tomorrow. But today– today we eat cake.