Michelle's nephew Tyler had his first birthday this past weekend. As tradition would have it, he got lots of presents that made little sense to him, got to eat lots of sugary treats, and had a cake smashing good time. Sounds like just another birthday party.

But when it's your first, I suppose it's only fitting to make it the biggest bash you'll never remember. Surrounded by family and friends, little Tyler was placed in the seat of honor with a healthy slab of birthday cake set up in front of him.

As the crowd gathered round, Tyler poked gingerly at the icing, testing out the spread. As his finger sunk further and further into the cake, the tiniest of smiles began to grow across his face. He removed his one sticky finger from the cake and placed it, instictively into his mouth.

A few seconds after the sugary icing touched his tongue, his eyes suddenly lit up with complete understanding. He pulled his finger from his mouth, swung his arm out straight, and dropped his full fist into the cake in front of him.

It was only a matter of minutes until Tyler was covered with cake. Lacking the coordination required to neatly feed himself, cake covered both his hands and much of his face in huge gloppy clumps. One after another, his surrounding family would move in for a quick comment and a joke. Each time, Tyler would respond with another gloppy handful of cake and a giggle.

"This is it, kid," I felt like telling him. "After this, you cake smashing days are over." Perhaps he'll have a brief moment with cake during some forgotten college party. Or perhaps he'll playfully smear a bit of icing on his wife's lips as he gently feeds her a slice of wedding cake. But other than that, this is it.

Not to ruin the moment, I obviously held back my comments. He'll find out soon enough that cake smashing isn't an everyday occurrence. Which is exactly why it's so much fun.