You know those people who seem to be SuperMom. I am so not one of them. For every single SuperMom you think you know, you just have to find the one place that she cannot manage. For me, that place is breakfast. I know, that sounds ridiculous. I can generally keep up with laundry. I can handle lunch and dinner and snacks mostly without a hitch. I can get to church, on time, with all of my kids dressed and no one crying (even me). But breakfast…just about throws me for a loop, nearly every day.
Thankfully it’s not my breakfast that is the problem (though I do try hard to be done before anyone else wants something because I abhor cold toast). It’s managing my children’s breakfasts. Truly, I probably should just schedule it better or something. Maybe have a set time for it. Or a “eat this on this day” approach. Either idea might go a long way to reducing the stress of breakfast time, but then again…it may just make me more crazy. One more thing to be “on top of” like laundry.
And I really can’t even explain why breakfast drives me nuts. How hard is getting a quick meal for three small ones who, generally, eat very well. But no. Meg is ready to eat and the other two want to watch TV. So I get Megan started, and she’s then halfway through her chosen breakfast by the time she is joined by the other two. They choose something she didn’t have, and now she will have no more of her option. She wants one of what they’re having. (Now, I don’t just hand it to her. The rule is that you finish what you asked for before you get something else, but still…we go through the drama almost every morning.)
Then there are the twins. Erin is not, apparently, a breakfast eater. She’s not hungry, she’ll say. But if I can get her started on something, say, half a piece of toast, she’s generally ready to eat the entire piece and have a bowl of yogurt to top it off. But she still tells me she doesn’t want anything almost every day. And Alex always knows what he wants. Which is why a “we eat cereal on Mondays” approach may not work for us…he won’t want cereal. He’ll want yogurt. Yellow yogurt (I color regular vanilla yogurt with food coloring – it’s cheaper and they think it’s different every day). And three bowls of it. But not cereal. Even though it’s Monday. Maybe just because it’s Monday. And so, I haven’t braved that approach yet.
So there you have it. I can barely manage breakfast on a daily basis for my children. By the time they have all finished (and Alex can take a LONG time to finish, mind you), I’m already exhausted for the day (and may have even gotten testy at them). It’s quite sad, really. But then again, it’s real life.
Of course, real life happens all the time, right? So here’s more of real life…one of us at a time.
These days, Meg is quite the ornery one. Okay, so that’s been true for ages. She’ll flash you a grin that is so endearing and devious all at the same time, it’s quite frightening. And she’s started apologizing profusely for every misdemeanor, which of course makes me feel horrible about scolding her (not that it gets her out of the scolding or whatever, but I feel worse about doing it). She’s started talking to me with her chin in her hands, which is downright adorable. And her phrase of the moment is “Oh MAN,” said pretty much exactly like Swiper the Fox, when she doesn’t get what she wants. She’s got that great two-year-old way of talking, too. So if you ask her who she is, she’ll say, “I am Megan. I am a todd-el-er.” And if you lose track of her for more than 45 seconds, she’s going to get into something too inviting to resist or hand you a potty accident, a huge mess (like last night’s flour/sugar fiasco), or some other such adventure. Yep…she’s a constant one, that’s for sure!
Erin is all into decorating right now. She arranges her toys all over a room and then calls me in to see her decorations. She loves puzzles. And she’s a coloring machine right now. Every piece of paper too near a pen will be colored on. Every crayon must be used to make lovely little drawings that I don’t have enough room to display (maybe I should ask for more magnets for Christmas). And we have had to, um, refresh our memories a couple of times that we only color on paper; I recently had to relieve a number of walls and the back door of various crayon scribbles. But she also loves building towers and castles with Duplo blocks and “reading” books to Megan. She LOVES crafts. And she’s really a sweet, helpful little thing all around.
And Alex…he is ALL boy. He announced the other day that he was getting a ball and bat for his birthday (on Saturday). Which was totally news to me. 
Thankfully, though, I could call on my sister who happily managed that for me, so he will not be disappointed. He also loves the Christmas lights. When we’re driving, he hollers (loudly) every time we see a house lit up – “CHRISTMAS LIGHTS!!” At every house. No matter how many houses in a row there are. He is also getting so much better with taking himself potty before he’s wet, and he can put on his own clothes, though his pants often end up on backwards. The funny part is that, if you mention to him that they’re on wrong, he says, “I like them that way” and goes back to playing. Okay…whatever, Bud!
Eric’s probably got the worst of it these days. He’s kind of bored at work. And he’s got a hormonal, cranky wife to deal with when he’s home. Plus 3 kids who LOVE to jump on or climb him when he gets home. But he doesn’t complain. Actually, I think he really likes it – at least the wrestling with his kids part. And he has taken some time to do some of his fun computer stuff. He got his Linux computer working (it’s been down at least 18 months), updated our backup systems and generally caught up our network to current standards. Which is awesome for me, as well. He’s really pretty great.
As for me…I am 36 weeks this week, so we are down to weekly appointments. Thankfully, though, he seems to be head-down, so we are looking forward to another VBAC. He has been given strict instructions to wait until January to arrive (due date is Jan. 3), so we’ll have to see whether he’s laid back like his dad or impatient like his mom. And of course, on top of all the Christmas fun, we have a LOT to do to get ready for his arrival. So the longer he waits, the better!
And that, is real life. At least for today. Okay, at least for the next 10 minutes or so. Who knows where real life will go from here!
