Birthday Cake!

It was the middle of the afternoon when my brother (he will hereby be referred to as "Uncle") called to say hello. Of course, any time that my cell phone appears in my daughter's line of sight she heads straight for it like a bull to a red flag. I saw no harm in letting her have a chat, so she swiped the phone from me and proceeded to listen intently to whatever it was that Uncle was saying. All I was able to hear was "weekend" and "birthday present" (he had missed Lainey's birthday and was making a visit from Chicago with her belated gift) but the second the word "Birthday" was uttered, that child's face lit up. Her eyes grew big. Her mouth dropped open, and was soon replaced by a laugh-squeal as she handed the phone back to me and exclaimed "YAY! Birthday cake!". Uhoh.

"No, not birthday cake honey, birthday PRESENT," I explained, throwing in a little extra enthusiasm just to take the edge off. Yet Lainey's face dropped all the same, and suddenly she had gone from the happiest toddler on Earth to one who has just been told that her dog was run over. On the verge of tears, she managed one single phrase before she stomped off to her playhouse.

"No birthday cake EVER."

Woah, had I just entered a time warp? One minute, I'm standing next to my adorable curly-headed toddler and the next minute I had a teenager. Full of drama and attitude. And clearly NOT happy about this innocent cake misunderstanding...

Apparently, the way to Lainey's heart is through her stomach. Mental note.