September 16, 2008 | Mama Smith

why I opt for cereal most mornings

While the boys do love their oatmeal and yogurt, I can only take so much clean-up duty before 8am. Levi’s differences from his brother continue to pile up – the talking, the dancing, the fearlessness…and the messiness. B unfortunately seemed to have absorbed all my OCD tendancies. His room has to be just so. His toys have to be neatly put away before we leave the house. His food has to be systematically consumed – fruit first, bread next, then meat.

Levi, on the other hand, loves a mess. Immediately upon receiving his plate of food, he removes everything and piles it on the table. As if we’ve been confusing the uses for common kitchen items all along. Forks are for brushing hair, plates are for rolling across the table, spoons are for scooping oatmeal onto one’s head. Don’t you know it’s great for shiny hair? Yogurt containers easily second as a hat. As I walked in to see him demonstrating for B the other morning.

So my choices in what to give them for breakfast is quickly diminishing to plain toast and cup of water.

The boys room is done, taking me an embarrassing long time. Both nap times and a second coat in the evening after I put them to bed in our room. It’s amazing how long something like painting one simple room takes when you’re doing it alone. Trimming, wiping up drips, moving drop cloths. But it’s done and I love it. A soothing antique blue as opposed to the previous muddy tan. Now we just need to get our bunkbeds back up and we’ll be closer to completion.

Vegan with a Vengance does us well again with this amazing pad thai for dinner the other night. If only I’d not confused the bitter, hard green PEA sprouts with the more delicate, crunchy bean sprouts. Live and learn.

Now I’m off in attempt to figure out what to do with my children as I lay on the couch fighting off this cold that has left me achy, exhausted and hoarse. Fellow mothers, please pass on any ideas you’ve discovered in entertaining your bored children while barely able to stand yourself! Piercing headache doesn’t agree with energetic, loud boys. So far this morning they’ve watched their Maisy video three times. Which only makes them more antsy. HELP!!