Forest Sneer sat on the floor, banging pots and pans against each other. It was giving his grandfather, Cyril, an awful headache, but he tried to tune him out. Cyril was on baby-sitting duty that day. And he had to succumb to the fact that Forest loved anything that made noise. Cyril was holding his hands over his ears, trying to block out the crashing when his dog, Snag, entered the room. Forest giggled, and stopped banging the pots and pans together. He dropped them, and crawled towards Snag.

Snag looked at Forest and smiled (this is a cartoon dog, remember?) He promptly rolled over onto his back, and Forest began to rub his stomach. Immediately, Snag's hind leg began to twitch like crazy. This was the only reason Snag didn't try to devour the baby. Forest knew where his soft spot was, and because of this, Snag had obligated himself to be Forest's protector. Snag and Forest were good friends, although no one could understand it.

Even though Cyril tried to train Snag to be extremely vicious, and he often wondered why the dog was so soft hearted towards Forest, he was glad for the diversion from the pots-and-pans band. Of course, that was when Cedric and Sophia came back to the Sneer mansion.

"Hi, Pop," Cedric said. "We're home."

"I don't know how you two do it," Cyril grumbled as he got up.

"Do what?" Sophia asked.

"Sit through Forest banging his pots and pans around without losing your marbles!" Cyril shouted.

"Maybe you should invest in ear plugs, Pop," Cedric said with a shrug.

"Good idea," Cyril said. "So where have you been all afternoon, anyway?"

"Oh we were just out picking up things for the party," Sophia said, pulling paper plates and streamers out of the brown grocery bag she was holding.

"I don't know why you're making a big deal over this," Cyril said.

"Oh come on, Pop," Cedric said. "It'll be fun!"

Cyril grumbled, and left the room. He had work to do. Cedric and Sophia shook their heads. Forest crawled over to his parents, and wrapped his arms around his daddy's leg. Cedric smiled, and picked him up.

"Don't mind your grandpa, Forest," he said. "He doesn't care much for birthday parties."

Forest giggled, and clapped his hands. He was going to be a year old next week, and Cedric and Sophia were planning a birthday party for him. The Raccoons were going to help them plan the party. They came over after a little while.

"Hey, how's my little buddy?" Bert asked, taking Forest from Cedric. "Learn any new baseball techniques?"

"What are you trying to do, Bert?" Ralph asked. "Turn him into your protégé?"

"No comment," Bert replied. "You got any peanut butter in that bag?"

"Here," Sophia said, taking a jar of peanut butter out of the bag. "And, Melissa, here's the cake mix."

"This'll be some birthday cake," Melissa said. "Chocolate with peanut butter frosting."

"I take it Bert's going to help bake the cake," Cedric replied.

"Yep," Melissa said. "He's going to make the peanut butter frosting."

"Chocolate and peanut butter are a great combination," Bert said, defensively. "Besides, Forest loves peanut butter!"

That was sort of true. Forest did like peanut butter a lot, but he liked chocolate better. Especially chocolate pudding. And all this talk about chocolate and peanut butter was starting to make Forest hungry, so he began to fuss a little.

"Lunch time," Sophia said, taking Forest from Bert.

"We'll start getting things set up while you take care of the baby, Sophia," Ralph said.

"Thanks," Sophia said, as she walked over to the refrigerator to get Forest's bottle.

The others continued to unload the bags, sorting things out. Bert opened the peanut butter and took a taste out of it to make sure it was fresh.

"Save some for your peanut butter frosting, Bert," Melissa scolded.

"I will, I will!" Bert shouted. "Hey, Cedric, can I talk to you for a minute?"

"Sure, Bert," Cedric said. "What's up?"

"It's about this birthday party. I was thinking of getting Forest something special for it. You wouldn't mind if I did that, would you?"

"What are you planning?"

"It's a surprise. A big one! I just want to know if it's okay with you if I did this big surprise present thing for Forest."

"Okay, I guess. I mean, what harm could it do?"

"Great! Thanks, Cedric!"

Bert grabbed the jar of peanut butter and practically raced out the door. Cedric stared at him as if he were crazy. He wondered just what exactly Bert was planning, but he didn't dwell into it too much. Like he said, what harm could it do?