Mmm...Birthday Cake

I have a confession to make. At kids' birthday parties...I eat the cake. Gasp! I know. Crazy secret. But I can't help but feel it is a little naughty. At virtually every birthday party I go to, I am the only adult eating the cake.

There is a part of me that wonders, what is wrong with me? I know I am a weirdo when it comes to food. In general, I love it, which leads to some, er, improper behavior. I have no problem with being the first person to go through a buffet. (Has anyone else noticed the tendency people have to just stand around even after someone instructs guests to please help themselves to the food? Having been a nerd since birth, I naturally follow instructions and am quite happy to help myself when told to do so.) I also have no shame at taking the last cookie when it is clear no one else will eat it. (Why let it sit there until it goes bad and you have to throw it away just to avoid being the person to eat the last cookie? Cookies are meant to be eaten, dang it.)

And when it comes to birthday parties, I love eating the cake so much that there was actually an occasion when I took Ree to a party and there was a small tower of fancy cupcakes and I had a moment of nervousness where I thought with a bit of alarm, "What if there aren't enough cupcakes for the grown ups?" (Never mind the cupcakes were slightly larger than Ree's head and there was an excellent chance she wouldn't be able to eat more than a small fraction of hers.)

Then again, there is another part that wonders, what is wrong with the other parents? I get why the skinny-mini moms don't eat it. I'm sure they look at the cake in terms of extra time needed in spin class. But all the other parents, really? No one else likes cake? Is it an eating in public thing? Are they just saving up for alcohol? I know we live at the beach, and bathing suit season is long, but I still don't get it.

Today I took the boys to a birthday party, which was a first for me. Jeff usually takes them to parties, and this was my chance to finally meet some of the other parents. I wanted to be all socially acceptable and stuff, so I did things like actually shower today and I wore clothes with a minimal amount of crustified food stains from the kids. But when it came to the cake, I just couldn't pass it up like the other moms. I know I got some strange looks as I dug in. And you know what? It was delicious. Maybe next time some other brave/crazy soul will even join me in eating it.