a surprise cake

The afternoon before my birthday Otto found out they would be making me a surprise cake. It was all he could think about for the next 24 hours, but he knew he needed to keep the cake a secret.

That night, when we were talking about his day, I asked him what his favorite part of the day was. "Well, when we got off the bus we didn't go anywhere. We didn't go to the store." Then he looked at me with the most excited face and rolled away from me, burying that poker face in a pillow. Then, to himself, mumbling in this excited run-on kind of way, "and it's a mix and I don't know what it is except you can make WHATEVER YOU WANT with it like maybe you can make cake, but not cake, but maybe you make pizza and you don't put anything on it, or cupcakes, or whatever you want, and it's going to be so yummy, hahahahaha!"

He had me fooled, I suspected Rob and Otto were plotting to surprise me with homemade pizza. Until the next afternoon...

Otto had an early afternoon appointment at the audiologist and afterwards we had about an hour to spare. It was my birthday and I was off work early, so I decided to take him to a local bakery for a treat. Try as he might, he gave me some clues about the cake that was waiting at home...

"We can go to the bakery, but I don't want cake how about a cookie or anything but cake."

"Too bad THIS will be our last sugar of the day!"

I was beginning to suspect. After we'd picked up Etta she was a little grumbly on the drive home.

Otto: Oh I think Etta is feeling bad because she wants to see Daddy and have cake!

Me: Cake?

Otto: What?! Oh there's no cake. Etta doesn't know that there isn't any cake ::nervous laugh::

While we waited for Rob to come home for dinner (and there was a mysterious item, covered in a cloth, on the kitchen counter) Ot mentioned, "Mommy, we'll have some more sugar soon! But nothing. We're not having anything."

Keeping the secret was burning him up. Once Rob got home the winking started. Otto and Rob winking and winking to each other, hilarious. We went out to dinner and then came home. "Just lay down on the couch Mommy and go to sleep. Your birthday is over, that's the end. Stay right there, don't come in the kitchen." He and Rob ran off to the kitchen...

My surprise cake. The best cake I've ever seen. Kept completely secret by the sweetest boy in all the world. We all gobbled cake and ice cream. The end.