Our son, Ivan, is 2 years and 3 months old.  Because he’s a toddler, we worry about breakfast every morning, nervous that he’s getting enough fuel to start the day our right.

As an aside, I note that by “we” I mean my wife, Ivan’s mom.  As a dad, and a person whose own breakfast consists of coffee and grapefruit juice, I’m less focused on what breakfast consists of and more focused on breakfast being “totally awesome fun” that’s “easy to make” and “easier to clean up.”  Also, because I tend to stay up late, I’m also in the camp that says that breakfast should be moved back a couple of hours, maybe till like dinner-time.

For now, though, in the Security Council of parenting, I’ve been out-voted, and my veto has been negated.  For the time being, Mom’s in charge, and she makes sure that  Ivan gets a good hearty breakfast.

If, that is, he decides to cooperate.

And, that’s a big “if.”  Because as anyone with a toddler knows, toddlers are finicky eaters. Sometimes they won’t eat, even when they’re hungry, because they know it drives their parents bat-shit crazy with worry.  And, in a toddler’s mind, nothing is funnier than making his/her parents bat-shit crazy with worry.  Next to an Elmo video, saying “no” or disrupting parental plans is the most fun a toddler can have.

So, it is in our house each morning, as my wife acts like a short-order cook in a diner, coming up with option after option of breakfast food for Ivan — waffles, pancakes, eggs, toast, oatmeal, grits — you name it, she can make it. Frankly, it makes me want to eat the breakfast myself, except that at that early in the morning, not only can I not open my eyes, I can’t make my mouth or stomach work.  It literally takes every ounce of strength I have to shuffle through our home, sit down on the couch, say “good morning” and then sit their in a half-asleep coma until it’s time to put on Ivan’s socks and shoes.

Meantime, Ivan’s mom serves him up a repast of a wonderfully and lovingly prepared breakfast, and yet, virtually every day, whatever is served, he wants something else.

Fortunately, there is one breakfast food that even he can’t reject — cereal. Dry or with milk, it doesn’t matter, cereal is a universally-beloved food, so much so that adults will continue to eat cereal for breakfast, lunch and dinner.  So, on the days that Ivan doesn’t want the food that his own mother slaved over (can you just hear the guilt-trips he’ll be getting later in life?), he gets cereal, and this makes us all happy.

Mom’s happy because Ivan’s eating. Ivan’s happy because cereal is tasty, and (at least when dry) is food you can eat with your fingers, and you don’t have to take your eyes off of Elmo to eat it.  And, I love it, because cereal is easy to make and easier to clean-up.

So, thank goodness for cereal.  It’s what’s for breakfast, for our own little cereal-killer.