A cupcake by any other name

...is a mess.
Today is my daughter's first birthday.
HOLY CRAP! WHAT?! (Sorry, I just read the second line out loud.)
I told Chris I wouldn't make a big deal out of it. She's not going to remember it. I said for months there will be better times for blowout bashes. I swore no to-dos.
I lied. Eh. At least I talked a good game.
She's going to have a party at day care tomorrow. (Today will start at the pediatrician's for another round of vaccines. Happy birthday! But we'll sweeten the day with a trip to our regular Indian joint so she can visit all her fans)
I have ordered a dozen vanilla cupcakes with LIGHT PINK icing. Good golly, I sure hope my request to tone down the icing color transmitted.
The bakery manager was pleasant and polite enough, but I'm willing to wager he doesn't have kids. He was slow on the reasoning that less food dye is OK. I believe I showed great restraint in not reciting the What Goes In, Must Come Out speech.
Truth is, it all felt a bit silly. I had my heart set on making Josie's first birthday cake. It was going to be a low-sugar carrot cake with cream cheese frosting. In my head it was beautiful and delicious.
But with the impending move and the fact that Rosie, my lovely KitchenAid mixer, is packed away, I gave in to sanity and ordered from the store. (Also, my vanity would have insured that I would be crest fallen when Josie and her classmates took their first bites, anticipating total glucose overload and instead finding wheat germ and no processed sugar, and cried.)
[Can I just add, too, that there is tremendous mommy peer pressure from the day care set. I also made nine goodie packages for Josie's class. They're adorable blue pails stuffed with a bath toy, wash cloth and individual-sized package of apple puffs. Yep. Party favors for infants.
But let's be real. I'm competing with the other moms who have sent home sippy cups filled with animal crackers or tiny board books inside Chinese take out style boxes. Have I mentioned they're infants?! Whoever started this is either obsessed with Martha Stewart, rich, nutso or all of the above. But then, what does that make me for continuing it?]
On Friday, we are completing the first leg of our move to Atlanta, stopping in Birmingham and staying the night with my parents. Of course, the proud, first-time grands have already planned out a Josie-focused menu with banana pudding for dessert.
So despite my best intentions, I have given into mommy peer pressure and baby sugar lust.
Bring out the cupcakes and the cameras, I say! Bring on the sugar! Bring out the crumbs and the icing smeared hair and the mess!