Wednesday, February 04, 2009

Chocolate Cake Song and Dance

Gwendolyn was awake and active this afternoon, and Sara had a craving for chocolate cake. These are the ingredients of happy parenting.

It's important to stimulate kids from a young age (say I, who am on my first child). What's more, music and dancing are important parts of culture to which every child ought to be introduced early. Enter The Chocolate Cake song.

Bill Cosby, in one of his classic stand-up routines, told the story of when his wife left him home alone with the kids for an evening. Finding them uncontrollable, the Dad told them that if they settled down he would give them chocolate cake for supper. So was born the song, sung by a clan of Cosby kids dancing a silly dance around the house:

Dad is great!
He's givin' us chocolate cake!

Dancing around the stage, head bobbing, arms flailing, knees bent, lips out, butt wiggling, Bill Cosby introduced us to the joys of kids playing hookey from the normal rules of life. Of course, when his wife gets home and witnesses the conga-line of kids circling the house all hopped-up on chocolate, the cake-peddling Dad discovers that making the kids happy doesn't always make for peace in the marriage.

Today I had nothing to fear for domestic peace, however, because Sara was making the cake. So while I held Gwendolyn, ushering her around the kitchen to discover the kitchen mixer at work, the cool window in the oven, and the joys of licking the bowl, I danced with her to the great Cosby-chant:

Mom is great!
She's makin' us chocolate cake!

Which, if you're feeling theological (and that often happens to me while I'm dancing with a newborn in my arms) can be expanded to:

God is great!
Invented chocolate cake!

So Gwendolyn and I, much to the amusement of Sara, sang the Chocolate Cake song and danced the great Chocolate Cake dance in her first kitchen romp. Someday my daughter will be able to appreciate homemade chocolate cake. For now, she just needs to learn the joy of song and dance.

Mom is great!
She's makin' us chocolate cake!

~emrys

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

For Aidan it was the goffy gober song from sponge bob. Just wait until she's 3 and singing that song when she wants cake and not peas.