The Cake Nightmare (and Weston's birthday)

Weston had his 3rd birthday on May 9th. How did it get to be the end of July already? I can't believe how bad at keeping up I am. Better late than never.
Weston had been telling me he wanted a dinosaur cake for his birthday, but I succeeded in talking him into a snake cake instead. Way easier cooler, I told him.
He didn't like it. But not because it wasn't cool. Because he was scared of it, or of any other cake for that matter.


A few weeks before his birthday, one night, several hours after Weston had gone to bed, he came running up the stairs screaming, "The cake is coming, the cake is coming!". He was shaking and crying and obviously very terrified of the cake that, in his mind, was in hot pursuit.
Now, I don't know, my nightmares have never included food. If I were to have a nightmare about a cake, it would most likely be me chasing the cake and not being able to catch and eat it. Now that would be a reason to cry. At any rate, he was scared and would not believe me when I told him that cake is our friend. Our very good friend. Hours later, when he had calmed down enough to return to bed, all he could say was "Don't get frosting on your face mommy". Hmm...I really wish I could have seen that dream.
Over the next few weeks, he kept talking about "the cake", but didn't seem to be as frightened. In fact, he told us that he was no longer scared because whenever the cake came for a late night visit he would just eat it. Smart boy. Problem solved, I guess.
Fast forward to his birthday. He was taking a nap when I decorated the cake, so when I excitedly presented it to him later, he stood very quietly looking at it and left the room without a word. He kept his distance all night and wouldn't even touch the piece of cake we put in front of him. Oh well, more for me.
Otherwise, he seemed to have an enjoyable birthday. I think it's now well behind him because he's back to eating cake. Now if I could just get him to have a nightmare about candy and marshmallows, life would be much easier.