Mo's Birthday

Okay, it's still a couple days off, but owing to the custody rotation, this was Mo's birthday at my house.



Well, part of it. We're also heading to Zonker's (formelry Jeeper's), but that's going to end up being tomorrow.



I made another chocolate mayonnaise cake from scratch. I had all the stuff except the icing from Em's birthday, and it's more fun than buying a professionally decorated cake from the grocery store. It turned out a little drier this time, but still edible.



Em had fun licking the batter bowl. I tried to get Mo to try it, but she wasn't having it. Also, since I made this after I picked the honyocks up for the weekend, I couldn't hide the mayo going in. I was afraid Em would refuse to eat a cake with mayonnaise in it because it sounds disgusting, but she was fine when I told her it was the same thing she had on her birthday.



My decorating skills are abysmal, but I did buy more frosting this time. Last time, I bought a single jar and it barely covered. This time I went with two, and used all of them. Cake is, after all, a delivery vehicle for frosting.



I tried to prep Mo for the festivities. We did a low-key morning thing, with her unwrapping my present to her, a great big frog with googly eyes. I think she liked him. He went straight from the gift bag to the fleet on her bed.



And later, when it was time to blow out candles and she was too excited to stay in the room, she went back and hid under him. This is a kid who loves to blow out candles. Maybe loves isn't the word: she's compelled by some inner urge to blow out candles. Any candles. Even when you want to keep them lit. So here's her chance to do it without getting yelled at, and she wouldn't do it. We coaxed her back out, and eventually she took a shot, getting seven of them and running away.



I was going to do the Zonker's thing today, after the relatives left. Em asked if we could wait until tomorrow, and she sounded tired. I was tired, too. I asked Mo, Zonker's and rides now or tomorrow, and she said 'tomorrow.' Given how overloaded she seemed by the day, I didn't want to push my luck. Stress, even positive stress, can lower the seizure threshold, and I think it's easy to underestimate how draining an affair like this is, even if in a good way.