cereal

If I could go back and retake this picture I'd put my legs together and spread them out in front of me. Might have been a bit more flattering. But the fact that I was even sitting on a curb was impressive enough and I do like how happy we all are in this shot! 

I wrote earlier this month of how I was done with carbs and grains and sugars again, and as a result got rid of all of the cereal in the house. In a hilarious twist, when Rory asked Elsie what she would like to buy with her earned quarters she proclaimed, "Cereal!" We laughed so hard. And when they came back from Target she proudly showed me her Strawberry Special K cereal that "has strawberries in it!!!"

When she got her cereal, Rory picked up a few boxes for himself, and just like that, cereal is back in our house.

I haven't had a bowl though. I'm good with my smoothies and eggs.

Actually, that was true until last night when Elsie woke up upset about something at 1:30. She was inconsolable, out of her mind, and Rory finally got her back down around 2. I could hear him clearing his throat for about an hour and finally a little after 3:00 he came downstairs and we started talking like it was the middle of the day. I followed him into the kitchen where he poured himself a big bowl of honey nut cheerios.

At first I was just going to watch him eat his bowl. But then we started talking about Hillary Clinton. And I decided to pour myself a bowl. Then we talked about Donald Trump. And poured myself another bowl. We kept eating cereal and talking about our crazy world and it was so awesome. We were equally frustrated and concerned that we were not getting any good sleep, but what are you going to do? Eat cereal. And talk politics.

There are lots of parts of marriage and romance that are hard to capture. The beauty of steadfastness, the gift of healing time, the quiet comfort of knowing each other well. Those themes don't really make their way into many movies or novels, but they're the very best parts. And now I'd add middle-of-the-night conversations to the list. Hard to explain why this moment was so sweet and romantic with two exhausted parents loading up on carbs at 3 in the morning. But we both commented the next morning how great of a night it was.

And cereal has never tasted so good in all of my life.