Air -- breakfast of... tired people

I'm starting to see why this Daylight Saving Time garbage can make people crash their cars. Maybe even on purpose so they can go back to sleep.

The kids are all messed up from this including Frieda. Fortunately, our van has been in the shop (inhibitor switch, nothing major) so I've gotten rides for Princess and the Little Boy we take to school every morning so Princess can get a ride every afternoon with Little Boy's mom. After she walked up to her ride's house, I went back to sleep. Not so today. Pebbles is feeling better enough to be grumpy all the time instead of almost comatose. Frieda is going through a growth spurt, is old enough to want to be up and looking around (ie, held), and all of a sudden decided that she wanted to be one of the cool kids and stay up until midnight. Well, Man and I havn't been cool kids ever since Thing #1 was born and it's been downhill ever since. We'd happily fall into bed at 8pm if we possibly could. But then Thing #4 also wanted to wake at 0430 to eat a bit and smile, smile, smile. Now that she's figured it out she does it all the time -- when we pick her up, right in the middle of eating (drool) in between yelling while she's angry at me for trying her extraordinary patience, and through tears after getting her first shots. So I can't totally resent that 0430 wake up call if I have a sweet-voiced tiny lady grinning at me like I've got chocolate milk for the day.

The only thing she won't smile for? That evil box that blinds her. aka, the camera. Phooey.

Anyway, back to breakfast. Because of my fatigue this morning I caused my alarms to cease without actually getting up to them (multiple -- one of them I have to get out of bed for) and thus we were all late this morning. Well, on the latest edge of "on time" you can get. We got home from the drop off and then I saw the half a bagel I had toasted for Princess' breakfast, untouched on the kitchen counter. Forehead smack, moment of grief, then glad that I had remembered to pack her snack today, then wondered seriously if being on time is worth sacrificing breakfast for.

She's 6 years old and growing. I meaning, growing as in one more size up and we'll be shopping in the junior's section and praying that the tween sizes this year will be appropriate for my kindergartener. We were laying on the couch, watching a movie, and her head came to my chin while her feet touched the tops of mine. Folks, I'm 6 feet tall.

Ok, back to breakfast. Normally I'm up by 5:30 with Thing #4, after which I take a shower and get some hot cereal going. We ladle it onto plates so it cools faster and sometimes we'll put less sugar in and make a smiley face out of chocolate syrup (there's that chocolate syrup again) which always reminds me of Mulan. ("Here's your breakfast and it's happy to see you!" whereupon he magically uses chopsticks to stuff wads of porridge in Mulan's mouth; there's a reason they call it "pourage".) Then we get fresh or canned fruit out to go with it.

She always comes home ravenous saying that the portions they give people her age at school are tiny. So, we always have fresh fruit or some tortilla chips and salsa for a snack, after which she'll be ravenous yet again but then I bark at her to drink water until dinner time. Yes, she gets school lunch because we're military and we can. Healthy? Nope. Convenient? You bet your Aunt Bessie's Bloomers.

Speaking of military discounts, we went to that restaurant Man really liked the other day. They have Kids Eat Free on Mondays and Tuesdays. Wow, we thought, so they know that all the families with lots of kids are going to visit on those nights. So we packed up our platoon and headed out so I wouldn't have to do dishes (I guess complaining bitterly about it does get me places). The sign on the front said that we could get one free kids' meal with the purchase of an adult meal. Great, I thought. One free kids' meal. Urgh. So, each of the kids got a meal ($4.29! Pebbles got chicken tenders and that's all the meal came with! Three stinking chicken tenders without a single veggie.) as well as a side of fruit (because there were no veggies!) Man ordered their largest appetizer tray and a steak dinner, and I got a burger (the only thing that came with veggies except for the cobb salad). It was slightly disappointing. The burger wasn't bad (how can you go wrong with bacon and avocado?) and the kids were happy to eat their dinner and I groaned inwardly at the thought of a $50 tab and swore again that I would never take the family out to eat again. Our server brought the check, placed it face-side down on the table and smiled at Man. "Don't forget your military discount!" The hair is a dead giveaway every time (this morning his had grown out to a buzz which he now calls "shaggy". 'Tis once again shaved). When all was said and done, that huge meal was less than $30. As we were leaving, a family that looked like it had two sets of young twins and a rotundly pregnant matriarch was seated near our table. It was nice to see a family even bigger than ours venturing out into public. An older lady who sat close to us throughout the meal complimented our children on their good behavior. Ah, that warms my heart. On the way out Tag and Pebbles said and waved goodbye to everyone in the restaurant which got them a lot of smiles and "awwww!"s and "oh, I just want to squeeze her"s. It was like a cheesy movie.

Then we got home and Princess said she was hungry. Argh!!!

Anyone want to borrow a 6 year old teenager for a few years?

Just kidding.