Breakfast Cycles

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Yesterday, I asked my subscribers what they thought of me changing up my daily posts here to focus more on commentary on the news. The feedback was a resounding NO, don't do that, and that people really liked when I found the small, invisible moments in a day to celebrate. Essentially, none of you want more news. So, that's what I'm going to do, and a story about that fell into my lap this morning.

Kiddo has been in a breakfast rut for a year or two: he'll eat bagels, waffles, and maybe a PB&J or similar sandwich. Before that, he was in a different rut, which was eating either eggs or oatmeal every day, with the occasional bagel or biscuit. My wife makes amazing biscuits.

I convinced him to try popovers on Thursday, and I thought that was a pretty big victory.

I can't really blame him. I eat the same thing most days for breakfast.

My wife makes a smoothie for all of us most mornings – as she explains to him every day, "These are the only vegetables you might eat today." He'll always try whatever veggie thing we have at dinner (usually, with some significant pushback), but we know he can take down a smoothie.

This morning, we slept in and missed his rugby game, which was obscenely early for a Saturday. I decided that I wanted to make the bacon we had, because I knew he'd eat it. I asked him what else he wanted for breakfast, and he asked me, "What goes best with bacon, Dad?"

"Eggs," I said.

"What's second best?"

We settled on toast with jam, and I made myself a bacon-egg-and-cheese (my wife had something much healthier). I never expected him to say yes to eggs. It's more like one of those things parents do, where we constantly push something on the kid in the vain hope that it'll make a difference.

He happily ate his plate of jammy toast and bacon, and we read a book. Overall, it was a pretty normal Sunday morning, made a little more peaceful because none of us had to run anywhere.

Then, all of a sudden, kiddo asked if he could have some eggs.

We were in shock.

We had to suppress the instinct to ask him if he was sure a few thousand times.

We made him some, and he liked them.

More than that, though, we were in shock that he asked to try something that was essentially new to him, as it's been years since his last egg.

If I'm being honest, I would say that I didn't even consider the possibility that he might ever ask us to try something new, especially out of the blue.

It's something that warmed me to my core, and it reminded me of a few things:

First, people are always full of good surprises.

Second, you need to create a space where good surprises can happen.

Third, you only get things you ask for.

Happy Monday, y'all. Hope you're having a great day, and you create the spaces you need.

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