Today was Chaim Boruch’s eighth birthday!

His birthday is always a special day for me, as well as a day full of emotion, when it seems that with every blink I take, another image from those first hours of his life flashes before me.

It’s a day of deep nostalgia, something IThis birthday was different don't often allow myself to feel. It’s healthier in general for me to keep my energy and spirit uplifted.

But this birthday was different.

I decided to bake a two-tiered cake using a new recipe for a thick white frosting.

I added ingredients, measuring and pouring, feeling a piece of my heart twirl into the batter with each rotation of the beaters, mixing in my own beat and rhythm as a “special” mother.

I chose a magnificent, milky white glass cake stand to showcase the cake and topped the cake with a mini school bus.

There is something about a yellow school bus that Chaim Boruch adores. Its big wheels, tall doors, padded seats with happy kids bumping up and down on them, and of course, best of all—the bus driver!

I carefully smoothed the thick frosting over the cake, making peaks throughout, giving it a celebratory look.

And then, there it was. The sparkle in my son’s eye—the “aaaaahhhhh”—the moment when the sound of his little voice let me know that it was all good. Even better, that it was great!

So, I stood there enjoying his reaction, snapping pictures and smiling at the look on his sweet face as he pointed to the school bus on top of the cake.

And then, suddenly, wearing a huge grin, he tried to grab the bus off the cake! With his unsteady footing and his imbalanced movements, his hand swiped the entire cake and platter off the shelf. Cake, platter, bus and all sailed through the air!

I lurched forward to catch all three in a somewhat ungraceful ballet-like move, and somehow, I did.

However, the camera that was hanging around my neck swung forward, and its exposed lens collided with the thickest, creamiest frosting I had ever made. Sticky, whipped meringue filled every crevice of my shutter, lens and dials. It was all encased in an avalanche of sweet, white, billowing birthday fluff!

And do you know what?

On this day, when deep emotion was tightly wound up in my chest and throat, and I was on the verge of tears from the varying emotions I was experiencing—I began to laugh.

I laughed so hard that it soothed theMy eyes were wet with tears of laughter pain I felt inside. My eyes were wet with tears of laughter as I looked at my now frosted camera and the somewhat lopsided cake.

And that’s when I realized that today had turned into my birthday too—a day on which I was born anew. A day when I realized that I now sing a different song.

It was an experience of a mere few seconds that turned a new page.

I have learned to laugh from inside my heart.

And I have learned to have my cake and eat it too.