Chocolate Dance

You can tell from this video that my kids are deprived. They are actually breathing heavy as they attempt to inhale the chocolate cake batter. And when the sugar hits Penelope's blood stream and she does her chocolate dance Violet copies her quite seriously, as if this is a normal part of chocolate cake batter eating.

We were making a cake for my brother Charles, whose birthday was last Saturday. I didn't remember it, but last year on his birthday, we had to bring him home before his party, on our way to the hospital to get Penelope stitches. Of course I remember the hospital, but in my mind it isn't just a year ago, it seems like 3 or 4 years ago to me. And I'd forgotten that it was on Charles' birthday. Penelope remembered. The day before his birthday she asked me if she could call him. I said sure, and while I listened to her talk to him I realized why she wanted to call  him. She was telling him not to worry, that what happened last year would not be happening again this year. She was not going to spoil his party by going to the hospital. "I just didn't want you to worry about it Charles!" she said as she ended her conversation. And we did have a nice party for him, with no trips to the hospital at all. Just the chinese takeout he requested and the peanut butter and chocolate cake he always wants me to make. And lots of dancing to his new c.d.s.