Cupcake

Oh, the beauty of a S'mores cupcake: a graham cracker bottom layered with fluffy chocolate cake and just a tad of rich chocolate icing with a few more graham cracker sprinkles. All topped with the perfect mound of lightly roasted marshmallow fluff.

About five or six weeks before Lane was born, we met for the first time. While I should have been dreaming about leaving my baby on a bus - like most first-time moms, I was dreaming of these little cakes from heaven.

Seriously, I was addicted. I would eat one a week. Any reason to go toward Howell Mill Road, and I was on it.

One afternoon after window shopping all day, Lanna and I ran into Star Provisions so I could pick one up for that evening. With the bakery getting ready to close for the day, just a few cupcakes remained on the stand - and not a single S'mores on the plate.

I began to panic. Then I saw it. The lonely S'mores hidden under the counter.

"Are you hoarding that cupcake for yourself," I spurted out to the nice man behind the counter. I think he was familiar with my ever expanding bump by this time.

"Oh no," he said in his accent I can't quite place. "You need this cupcake. You must take it."

As if this story weren't bad enough, it gets worse.

With a doctor report the day before that Lane was no where near ready to be born, James brought home a S'mores cupcake for me on Wednesday, December 3. I didn't get around to eating it that evening.

Later on that night, my water would break.

Laboring, I had a thought: my cupcake. It would be stale by the time I got home. I was terrified. Screw labor. The worst thing that could happen was wasting that beauty of a dessert.

Lane arrived. Lanna brought over cupcakes a few nights later. Eventually, my obsession subsided.

But, I have not been able to stay away. Yesterday, Lane and I met Lanna for lunch and snuggling.

It is always so sweet to see my best friend with my child. It is even better when she occupies my child so I can eat a cupcake.

That is what friends are for, right?

Lane and Lanna play

I brought cupcakes back to the table. That is right, four cupcakes. A S'mores for then. A chocolate to take home to papa. A new strawberry to try out later. And one more S'mores for Saturday night.

Know what is even sweeter than cupcakes? These cheeks. Good thing I have 24/7 access to them. I can't seem to stay away.