As is customary in our household, I make breakfast on weekend mornings and we eat together as a family. Usually banana pancakes and scrambled eggs are on the menu at least one day, if not more.
I have a nice system for getting them made and on the table.
"Oatmeal" came her reply. "I feel like we need something healthier this morning, and we had pancakes yesterday." I was prepared for this answer, and was, quite frankly, feeling the same way. Some Steel Cut oats sounded pretty good.
However, when I announced this to Annabelle, she was visibly disturbed. "NO!" came her stern reply. Being 3 years old now, she is not shy about voicing her opinion. And acting on it.
It was at this point she emphatically marched over to the cabinet where the pancake mix was stored (yes, I use a mix most of the time - I didn't say I was a gourmet), pulled out the heavy bag, and started trying to lift it over her head onto the counter top above.
Annabelle loves eating pancakes for sure. But what she REALLY loves is making pancakes, which enevitably involves eating some (a lot) of the batter. That's absolutely one of her favorite things. But we can't have pancakes every weekend morning, so I decided to make a mini stand.
As if.
"Honey, I said we are having oatmeal this morning. Not pancakes." I let her know, a bit more firmly. She responded by reiterating her position. "Pancakes!"
I was beginning to get annoyed at the fact that she was obviously not listening to me, when I looked at her cute little face and decided that, in this case, it wasn't worth starting the morning off on a sour note.
"Okay sweetie" I relented. "Why don't we make both pancakes AND oatmeal?" This was greeted with a huge smile.
Yes it was a bit of extra work making two separate breakfast meals (I felt like a short order cook), and we had to make sure our kids got healthier fare down their gullets later that day.
But when Annabelle looked up at me while mixing the pancake batter with so much care - batter which, by this time, was then also dripping slowly down onto her chin - and gave me a one word status update, I knew I had made the right call.
"Happy." She proclaimed, as she flashed another big smile.
"Yeah, me too Sweetie." I had to acknowledge "Me too!"
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4 comments:
Sweet story. Pretty sure I know which pancake mix you use. I wish I had the time to make pancakes on the weekend. Too many kids up at too many different times. Ugh. At least we eat dinner as a family pretty much every night.
Thanks Daniel. Usually it's either Snolqualmie Falls, or Krustez - with frozen bananas and walnuts added. Never fails to please. I think it's amazing that you all can sit down together for a nightly meal. It is crazy here with just the 2. My hat is off to you.
So sweet! Life is too short sometimes to mornings sour! Good job Dad!
Pick your battles.
It sounds like you made the right call.
How wrong could you really go with banana pancakes?
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