Endless Patience

It’s really weird how some days I wake up in an irritated mood for absolutely no reason.  And then other days I wake up with boundless amounts of patience.  I’m not sure why this happens but lucky for Maya and Ali I happened to wake up this morning with a ton of good cheer and energy.

I jumped out of bed at 6am and hit the gym for an hour. When I came back upstairs Ali and Maya were still sleeping and I was able to take a shower in peace and quiet.  This meant that nobody knocked on the door asking me where their slippers were (Maya). Or what was for breakfast (Ali). Or if they could watch TV (Maya). Or if we had any bananas left (Ali).

Twenty blissful minutes later I came out and everyone was still sleeping!  This is unheard of in our home where everyone is usually awake and annoyed with each other by 6:30 am.  I had some hot water with lemon and quietly worked on my computer and just when I was halfheartedly planning to check if Maya and Ali were still breathing I finally heard Maya get out of bed.

I think Maya was surprised when I enthusiastically suggested we make waffles for breakfast.  And not only did we make waffles but we made waffles and topped them with vanilla yogurt, apples, almond slivers, maple syrup, and powdered sugar.  Maya and I even made Ali tea and brought him breakfast in bed. 

Ali was speechless and maybe even a bit scared.

I let Maya drop a ton of chocolate chips on her waffle, about a cup of maple syrup, and some powdered sugar, and I let her eat in our room.  This has never, ever happened.  I didn’t even get upset when she wiped her hands over the leather ottoman instead of on the napkin I so conveniently provided for her.

(Side note – it took every ounce of self-control not to fix the fitted sheet before I took this picture)

After breakfast Maya was so in awe of my good mood that she offered to help clean while I made some granola.  So naturally I put her to work cleaning out the cupboards.

I won’t let Maya eat Cheetos but I have no problem letting her use dangerous chemicals.  My logic surprises even me sometimes.

We finished the bottom shelf and organized foods according to size.  The end result was so fabulous that it put me in an even better mood.  Such a good mood, in fact, that I agreed to accompany Ali to a car dealer to check out one of the cars on his not so shortlist. 

Although I would rather watch my nails grow than look at a car on a Sunday afternoon, I did, by some miracle manage to maintain all my patience  during our visit to the dealer.  After leaving the dealer empty-handed but armed with even more paperwork, pricing, and information that Ali will never look at, we headed to Wahoo’s Fish Tacos for lunch.

I had heard good things about Wahoo’s, and frankly, that was the only reason I decided to visit yet another fast food restaurant.  While the outside of the restaurant looked nice and clean, the inside was decorated with bumper stickers like “My child is an honor student and eats at Wahoo’s.”  Charming. 

It baffles me why any restaurant would intentionally make their establishment look like the equivalent of a truck stop diner.

I ordered the Wahoo Bowl.  It came with flame-grilled fish, rice and black beans.  On a plate.  Wahoo’s is full of contradictions.  I ate 3/4 of the fish, and 1/4 of the rice.  I am not a huge black bean fan so I had a couple of spoons.  The fish was good…not as fresh as I would have liked but still pretty good.

Ali had a burrito of some sort…I believe it had chicken in it and about 1,000 calories worth of other stuff.  He proclaimed it “decent.”  That could be really good or bad.  After more than a decade of knowing Ali I’m still not sure. 

We visited with Ali’s dad for a bit after that and on the way home Maya fell asleep in the car. 

When she woke up in the worst mood ever I still managed not to lose my temper.  When she said she wanted pizza and not pasta for dinner, I kept my calm.  When she flung her clothes on the floor I somehow maintained my patience. 

I think things are about to change though because I just heard Maya tell Ali…”Fine.  Then I will break your toes too.” 

That can’t be good.