One Morning at a Time

This morning contained the expected craziness that comes after a long holiday. Our family took all of last week off, including the kiddos, so our school/work morning routine was a bit rusty. My boy had no trouble remembering his tasks in the morning and took care of everything quickly. My girl is always more of a challenge and is going through a whiny stage as an extra special bonus - fabulous.

As I was packing the boy's lunch (which was more fun than usual since we didn't have a chance to go to the grocery store this weekend - you want leftover mashed potatoes and gravy for lunch? Fine by me...), the girl started whining about getting a smaller breakfast than the boy. The girl gets breakfast at school an hour after she gets there, so I don't feel bad only giving her one waffle while he gets two. The boy has to make it all the way to lunch, so he needs a few more calories in his stomach. Of course, she feels slighted when anything between the two of them is the least bit uneven. I once again explained to her why her breakfast was smaller, and told her that next year, when she is in kindergarten, she'll get a larger breakfast too. As I said that, it occurred to me that I'll be packing two lunches, and wrestling with two different palates, every school morning for the next several years. While time generally goes too fast for my taste, the sudden thought of the thousands of lunches I'll be packing and the mini battles I'll be fighting just made me feel tired.

I fell back on some wonderful advice I received at one of my baby showers - nothing lasts forever. Every stage,every phase, will eventually pass and will be forgotten (at least until you hear another parent talking about going through the same thing!). That advice got me through some rough times when they were infants, and it helped this morning, too. Eventually, we will run out of mornings where I need to fix lunches; until then, I only have to focus on (and  try to enjoy) one morning at a time, and not worry about the many mornings that are hopefully in front of me. We got through this morning just fine, the kiddos were happy when I dropped them off, and they were poised for good days at school. That's really all that matters. And the boy was looking forward to a lunch of mashed potatoes and gravy - I'm just glad he likes leftovers...