Cheerios Float!

    On Tuesday my boys woke up very cranky.  Everything they said was in a whine and I could barely understand it.  This usually leads to a very difficult breakfast.  Little did I know I would be sitting at my kitchen table for over and hour arguing about the physical properties of Cheerios and how what Nick was asking for was impossible.

   I first should set up the situations.  For at least a month now James always wants oatmeal, Nick always wants cheerios and Joe is my swing vote, some days cheerios some days oatmeal.  So when we got up I started making our pot of oatmeal and getting bowls ready.  I asked all three boys what they wanted.  I got two oatmeals and a cheerios.  Easy enough? Not exactly.  When the boys came to the table I asked James if he wanted milk in his oatmeal.  He said no.  I asked Joe he said Yes.  So now the order has become one oatmeal no milk, one oatmeal with milk and a cheerios.

   When the cheerios were presented to Nick as they always are, he screamed at me that he wanted "Big milk."  Usually this means that I have insufficiently filled his bowl with milk and he would like some more.  We went back and forth for a bit and finally I said "you cant have any more milk because your bowl will overflow".
   This resulted in flailing his arms and throwing himself on his chair screaming "I want big milk like Joe"  It took me awhile and a few attempts to figure out that he wants his milk to cover his cheerios the way that Joe's milk covers his oatmeal.  Ok problem solved.  I figured out what the little beast who was inhabiting my adorable sons body wanted.  Except for the fact that I can not get milk to completely cover cheerios.  We went at it for another 20 minutes about how cheerios can not get covered in milk like oatmeal because it floats.  I was trying to be a good mom and explain to him why he could not get his way without getting frustrated or taking his food away..  When what I really wanted to scream was "CHEERIOS F*&KING FLOAT AND THERE IS NOT A DAMN THING I CAN DO ABOUT IT."  I know lovely isn't it but that was where I was.  After and hour I kicked him out of the kitchen with no breakfast and he threw another 30 minutes of a fit for not getting to eat breakfast.

Thursday morning starts like every other morning.  Two oatmeals and a cheerios. I prepared myself for how I was going to handle the fact that my two year old doesn't understand basic physics.  So here we go. We started again with the fact that he wanted Big Milk in his cheerios. Then adamantly pushing his cheerios with disgust. How dare I feed him this filth.

    Here is the scientist in me.  Lets take some time to explore these two substances.  Needed:  One clear cup, some water, a lump of oatmeal and some cheerios.  I let them play with it for awhile to see that even when they pushed the cheerios down they always come back up.  And there our sad oatmeal lump sits at the bottom.  I even got them to chant cheerios float and oatmeal sinks.

 Success!  He was eating his cheerios.  Don't forget that this is what he asks for every morning.

 After two bites he pushed his bowl away and said "Mommy cheerios float and oatmeal sinks,  I want Oatmeal and big milk".  I give up.  Eat your oatmeal kid, enjoy.  I'm sure we will be at this for awhile.  At least he ate some breakfast.