Butterfly Cakes, Painful Books, Hilarious Poo.

You know when you have more than one kid and you notice that one of them needs extra loving, an extra something? Rocco was not himself, down in the dumps, tired and a bit ... over it all.

I walked past a bakery the other day and thought to myself, "Oh my god I don't believe Rocco has ever eaten a butterfly cake!" I bought three - one each and one for spare because you just never know.

When he came home from school I told him I had a surprise for him, something he's NEVER had before and to wait inside while I set it up. He was SO excited.

I set up a picnic in the neighbours backyard because our yard was full of weeds and dog poo and the neighbours are never home. It's their holiday house, every week religiously a maintenance crew come and mow and weed and do all the stuff.

He wanted to eat one STRAIGHT away but I had to tell him a story first. Hearing his silent groan, I pressed on regardless.

"WELL sweetheart, one day I had 10c for the cake stall at school. I think I was in year one too, just like you. At lunchtime we walked round the hall and could buy whatever cake we liked. I already knew I was going to get two toffees for 5c each but I walked up to a table and Rocco - on that table were the most amazing little cakes. I'd NEVER seen one in my life, they were cupcakes but had cream in them with these two bits of cake sticking out, see? The lady told me they were butterfly cakes. BUTTERFLY CAKES. IN THE SHAPE OF A BUTTERFLY. I bought just one, because they were 10c. It was one of the best things that had ever happened to me in my life."

So me and Rocco sat there on the blanket, eating butterfly cakes together. Later he told me he thought "the surprise" was a new video game or Lego or something. Our cakes were chocolate with real cream. They were beautiful. Butterfly cakes will always be magical to me.

Last night he was really tired and had to go to bed early. So I told him to pick a book. He went to the shelf and randomly picked When The Wind Changed.

I told him I didn't feel like reading that book can he please pick another book?

"But why can't we read this, mum?"

I told him I just didn't feel like it. The real answer is, I stole this book from my brothers bookshelf when he was about 14, growing up and growing out of all of his toys, losing his sense of wonder and joy in the world. Losing his little boyness. All kids go through it. But I pinched this book from him, to always remind me of the times I'd read it to him in bed and we'd laugh so, so hard, pulling the worst faces we could possibly pull.

And now on an even deeper level, I believe my brother thought he was stuck and the wind changed and that he would never get back to being "himself" again, or feeling joy, love. So he left.

I didn't explain that to my six-year old. I just chose another book - one from the entire collection of Mr Men books that Max proudly owns.

Yeah. I should have twigged from the title that this wasn't going to be such a great read. It wasn't.

I read the entire book to Rocco, grabbing tight the frame of his bunk and then my trick of digging my nails into the palm of my hand so hard it hurt so bad but it still didn't hurt more than reading that book. I read that book in an even voice, with all the right inflections.

When The Wind Changed would have been an easier read. Of course I knew some magic crap would happen to make Mr Nobody better OF COURSE.

The Wizard! Of course the Wizard had some special potion but I still don't understand his logic. By the end of the book, Mr Nobody chose a colour to be (yellow) and turned into a somebody. Of course. Like it's that easy.

I kissed Rocco goodnight VERY quickly. He had utterly no idea. "NITE MUM LOVE YOU."

Came straight out to throw Mr Nobody in the fire. It lit up so quick, even crackled and popped, gone within seconds. Quite the show, for a nobody.

Sometimes no matter how hard they try and fight, not everybody ends up to be a somebody. Life is unfair like that.

So now Max has the whole Mr Men collection minus one.

This morning, Rocco and I made poo from play dough. The beautiful @deenapoteet sent me an ENTIRE box of goodies all the way from the dirty south - Texas.

Complete with CORN KERNEL MOLDS to make your poo look even more realistic. Rocco laughed, hard. Mushed the corn in and VOILA!

I PROMISED to leave it there all day, to trick Max and Dave when they get home.

Poo. Poo is the way to a boys heart. Rocco most likely won't remember the time I told him about the day I discovered butterfly cakes but he sure will remember gleefully making that poo this morning.