Sophia Birthday Fail

Saturday was Sophia's birthday.  This means that I now have not one but two, almost-human children in the house (it's at age five that they can be expected to be reasonable most of the time).  One part of me wonders where the time went - wasn't it yesterday that Kathleen was dumping diapers all over newborn Sophia?

But the other part is heaving a sigh of relief that those crazy, stressful days are long gone.  Babies are cute when they're sleeping and cuddly, but when they aren't you wish that you had a five year old that could be sent to their room when they're being unreasonable.

Since we had a friend's goodbye party to attend Saturday evening, Sophia had her birthday in two parts.  Yesterday morning we all went to an activity of her choice (that could cost money! Kathleen was quick to point out) following the breakfast of her choice (doughnuts).

But we saved the dinner of choice, cake, and presents for today.  She was surprisingly okay with delaying presents for a whole day, in fact being much more okay with it than Kathleen was.

Sophia asked for Eggs Benedict for dinner - again, and Strawberry Cream Cake for dessert - again.  Only this year, since I had make the cake last year, I didn't look at the ingredients before going to the store yesterday.  After all, we had strawberries, we had cream, we could make cake, right?  Maybe the recipe should titled "Strawberry Cream (the liquid and cheese kind) Cake, so that next time I can remember the eight ounces of cream cheese that is supposed to go in to the whipped cream.  Since it was Sunday, I had to improvise.  I think the Italian meringue mixed in worked just fine, and I don't like cream cheese much anyway.  

After baking the cake, making that meringue, and slicing and macerating strawberries, we turned to dinner.  Brandon started by slicing up a pineapple.  Pineapples here are somewhat expensive, as they are imported from places far away, so we don't buy them very often.  But since it was Sophia's birthday and she loves pineapples, I had a fit of good-mommy and got her one, proudly showing it to her when we got back from the store just so she could know how lucky she was to have a great mom.  

When Brandon picked it up for slicing, he wrinkled his nose and turned to me, "Um, I think this pineapple might not be edible anymore.  When did you get it?"  After cutting about half of the outside off, it was edible, barely, and I might regret having given half of it to Joseph later this night.  Sophia, however, was perfectly happy with her half-bad pineapple, sharing the other half with Edwin.

Next was eggs benedict.  I managed to pull off the hollandaise sauce without curdling it - unlike last time - which was good because we only had ten eggs left for poaching, and not enough to waste three more on another attempt at sauce.

When Brandon went to the freezer for the english muffins, I got the worried voice again, "Ummmmmm, sweetie, where are the english muffins......?"  After digging through frozen bags of unidentifiable food, I resurfaced with our remaining english muffins.  Two.  

"It's okay!"  I brightly told Brandon, feeling the day beginning to slip, "We can have the eggs on bread!" and dove back in.  Five minutes of rummaging later I brought out the bread.  Five slices.  For ten eggs.  "Joseph doesn't need bread anyway, right?"

Sophia pulled out the cucumbers I had last-minute remembered as a side dish (I think something more nutritionally valuable than cucumbers is needed to counterbalance eggs benedict, but I was getting desperate).  "Are the skins supposed to be slimy, mommy?"  After Brandon had shaved and peeled as much bad as he could off, he gave one to Sophia for taste-testing.  "Hmm.  Kind of spicy."  I don't think cucumbers are supposed to be spicy.

Luckily Sophia was so caught up in having Her Birthday, she thought the meal was wonderful, now could we get to the presents part?

I had to assemble the cake after letting it cool during dinner, and got to slicing it up.  One layer went on the plate, strawberries lined up along the side, strawberry mash in the middle, altered whipped cream on top, next layer... hey, where's the top?!?  Only then did I remember that a two-layer cake means three layers of cake with two layers of filling.  Brandon came in while I was slicing the dome off the second half of the cake.  "What do you think you are doing?!"  

I continued slicing, ignoring haters who want to hate, and got the top off in one piece, grateful that I hadn't pulled the cake out of the oven before it was fully done.  Once in college I filled in the fallen centers of my cheesecake layers with cream cheese frosting.  It's all going to be eaten, right?

In the end, however, Sophia still had a birthday, despite her mother's inability to get it all together.  Because in the end, the only thing that matters is the presents, and those made it through okay.

Happy Birthday, Sophia!