A Bread Disaster

September 5, 2013 - The third day of school.

My daughter wakes up, kisses me good morning, (while I'm still in bed) and promptly heads off to the kitchen to prepare her lunch for school.  I can only assume she is in a rush to beat me to it as she has insisted, since we bought her new lunch bag, that she wants to be responsible for this task.

I really had no problem with her taking this on as long as she would allow me to scrutinize her choice of foods.  She had no problem with this, so it was on to learning how to slice bread. 

I'm very fussy about my bread.  I really can't stand it when someone messes up my nice, straight cut.  But, for the sake of my daughter's education in the kitchen, I will put my fussiness aside. 

Although she did a decent job of it on the two mornings I was supervising her, today, when she took the loaf on herself, it was a disaster.  Bread crumbs.  Dog food. 

I walked into the kitchen and she immediately started apologizing, insisting that she forgot how to go slowly.  I said, "KK, what a mess.  Here, slice 2 more pieces for Jared's lunch".  She was very excited to be put back in the saddle so quickly.  And I am rather impressed with myself for not using this incident to my obvious benefit, the taking back of my motherly duties.

So it continues, the very quick aging process of my daughter.  I'm sure I am handling this as most Mothers would, with both fear and excitement.  There are days I'm very proud and eager to teach her everything she is ready for.  At other times, I purposely hold back, thereby maintaining what defines my current role as a mother in this house.  Always, I am slowly redefining what it means to be her Mother. 

Two steps forward and one step back makes one step at a time.  I can handle that. 

Most of the time.