Riley

“Auntie Rye, I neeb muh babpab!”

“Kendall, honey, Auntie can’t understand you with your toothbrush in your mouth!”

“Sobbi!” Appearing in the kitchen, Kendall pulls the bright pink Barbie toothbrush out of her mouth and  heaves an over-dramatic sigh. “I need my backpack, Auntie Rye.”

For a moment she frantically looks around the kitchen before snapping her fingers, stepping over to the refrigerator.  One yank later, she pulls the backpack off the bottom shelf.  Kendall giggles, head falling back towards the ceiling. “Aunt Rye you’re so funny. What was my backpack doing in the fridge?”

“I wanted your lunch to stay cold. And I wanted to keep the lunch and the backpack together. I didn’t want us to forget one of them!”

Kendall shakes her head in a move that she had to have learned from an adult.  Once she marches back to the bathroom, Riley does a quick glance around the room.  She has the permission slip for the zoo.  The backpack/lunch combo.  Her own lunch.  Sunglasses, sunscreen, and her favorite Michigan State baseball hat. 

Ha! Riley smiles to herself. This parenting thing isn’t too hard. I could do this more often.  Every day, even!  Heck, I could even have several of these munchkins tromping around the house.  I’d be supermom with the power to co— 

“Aunt Riley, what’s for breakfast?”

Woops…

 “How about…” Quickly, Riley snags a box of oatmeal cookies from the counter.  “Oatmeal breakfast…circles!”

“Cool!”  Riley takes three, slips her backpack on, and heads for the door.

Maybe I ought to re-think that supermom thing. Forgetting breakfast? Sheesh, Riley.