I think I've grown over the years as a parent. One of the things that just doesn't bother me anymore is when the kids eat leftover pizza for breakfast. In fact, leftover dinner (whatever it happened to be) has been J.P.'s preferred breakfast since he arrived here from China 15 months ago. It's quick, almost always nutritious (even pizza in our house is often home-made, veggie filled, and whole wheat), and it's NOT sugar-laden cold cereal. Since John's arrival, I've actually come to the realization that cold cereal isn't that great of a breakfast after all. Parenting children from China has that affect; we begin to question why we've been doing things a certain way for many years. Why do we feel that meat has to be the MAIN dish at dinner? Not that we are going to be vegetarians or anything, but a few more vegetables in our diet is definitely beneficial. Do we really need to drive to the movie theater? We can easily bike the 4 miles.
On another note, today David took Ben to the movie theater (alone) to watch Winnie the Pooh. Ben never gets to see movies for little kids because the three teens always convince him to see their movie choice. In the fifteen months since his adoption, Ben has seen hundreds of action/thriller/fantasy movies, and zero movies geared towards first graders. In fact, Ben has seen dozens of movies that I would NEVER have allowed Austin (our almost 16 year old) to watch at age 7. Yes, I've given up on that battle too. David does a quick preview of the movie selected, and he overrules my objections 99% of the time. David believes the fact that good triumphs over evil makes the movie ok. Hmmm. Anyway, my point is that I am counting the days until Ben has little brothers too. We may have two distinct sets of boys, big boys and little boys, but at least Ben won't feel pushed to be a big boy way too soon. I can enjoy my little boys' hugs and kisses for just awhile longer.
