No Milk

“Let’s have a better morning this morning!”

 My son hops onto the stool and shimmies close to the counter. His eyes are wide, like an anime character, big clear and blue. If you need an image of bright eyed and bushy tailed in the morning, he is it. He pops out of bed with the greatest of intentions. I love that about him.

 I am packing lunches and am glad to have some company at the counter. I admit to the kids that there is no milk. The mood changes. This means my son won’t be having his favorite ginger granola for breakfast. He glances at me from over the top of his hard bound annual comic book. His eyes narrow.

“Mom! Mom! Which one of these guys would I be?”

 He hands the comic book over to me and I see a series of boxes. Each box has a boy in a tub. The tubs are filled with different crazy things. One is a mud bath, one is full of whip cream, one has bunch of floating and bobbing people with balls to shoot and goals everywhere. There’s about 10 different versions.

 “This one,” I say pretty confidently.

 “Yup!” he confirms. “How do you do that?”

 “I know you bud.”

 He smiles.

 I remind him about breakfast and give him the options, minus granola. He grumbles. Finally, deciding on an English Muffin. I feel like I let him down. But, it’s only milk.

“Mom, we CAN bring Tech Decks to school,” he starts.

 “I thought we were starting our morning out right, bud? This sounds like the same thing we got into yesterday morning.”

 “Yah, yah. But, it’s true. We can. I swear. Ms. P says we can play with them at snack but they have to stay put away and we can’t be fiddling with them all day.”

 “I guess I’ll email Ms. P then. If that’s true then she’ll agree, right?”

 “No! No! Don’t email her!”

 I smirk. He sees it. Not even the tiniest detail can get by this kid. And, I admire him for that. He is so perceptive. Maybe a little bit conniving. But, I guess that will serve him well in some aspect of life.

 He crunches down into his English Muffin. The Tech Deck bangs up and down, over, sliding on the counter, slamming on the book. He is doing it on purpose. But, I don’t care. We are both trying to have a good morning. And, we both know that sometimes that takes a little bit of give.