Chicken Cordon Bleu, it’s what’s for breakfast…

No, most people know Chicken Cordon Bleu as a fancy dinner plate at some nice French restaurant—or other, but Meghan calls it breakfast.

I know, I know, I’m raising a princess; but she was just so good all week—no outbursts, no hand biting, no bouts of destruction of any kind—you might be thinking “Miracle on 34th Street,” but, no, it was more like “Holly Golightly Does Vacation” (home is like vacation for her) and she was good as gold and ecstatically happy and singing all week. (Note, some exaggeration in the previous.) She went back to school yesterday and seemed ready for it, too. Really! I didn’t have to pull and yank and bribe, and she was easy as pie (and ate pie, too) to motivate and get showered, dressed, and on her last morning (boy, I sound like she’s dying), enjoyed a different favorite for breakfast—pancakes. (And I never want to see Chicken Cordon Bleu for the rest of my life!!) After “pancakes” she waited for her bus to arrive, got on with a hop, skip and a jump (I’m exaggerating again) and even blew us a kiss (not exaggerating), and she was off to school until she comes back home for the weekend—in two weeks.

Wow, right!? But I’m no fool. I know this week was a good week because of Christmas and all the treats that she enjoyed, but she’s still demanding and quite a bit of work when she’s home. I hope that doesn’t sound cold, but I know my girl.

I’m just so glad that she enjoyed herself, and we enjoyed her, as well; these are the moments to remember and cherish—and they do come! And because it was such a successful week, it was sad for us on her last night home and knowing that she will be gone for another two weeks... I was sad and felt like crying as I snuggled with her underneath my bed comforter, while we watched a cartoon show that she likes, and I briefly thought to keep her home for another week—since Nick is home from school and her vacation is when we say it is… but, then, I quickly dismissed that thought with a wave of my hand, because I knew that a good week doesn’t mean another week would be good for Meghan.

So you might be wondering why just two weekends a month home for Meghan? We chose alternating weekends so that we could have more time with Nick on the opposite weekends—take weekend ski trips, sightseeing, hiking—these things aren’t so easily done with Meghan, nor does she like doing them. And in the past, we would have had to forgo trips to anywhere (or at least plan heavily around Meghan) for fear that she would be difficult or non-compliant (A plan B was always in the works!)—A lifestyle that was neither good for Nick nor offered him much of a life—or us, for that matter.

Two years ago in August, we took Nick to Vermont for a little weekend away (or one night, really). It was the first time we ventured without Meghan and I did feel a pang of guilt for keeping her with my parents and my brother, but it was for Nick and we enjoyed it tremendously. We even laughed about it; because what we ended up doing and visiting were things and places that we could never do or go with Meghan, like swimming in the river or watching glass blowers make fine glassware in their “factory” (as Nick called it) and above all, actually wandering through the glassware gallery and viewing all their work. Let’s face it, one tantrum with Meghan and we would have been writing GREAT BIG checks and banned for life with our mug shots posted in the gallery entryway (or posted up at the state line) looking like: Husband and me: crying because of big check writing; Nick: smirking and pointing to Meghan; Meghan: laughing hysterically, and, incidentally, the best darn photo that I would have ever seen of her… and Reading as caption: Crazy People Alert, Absolutely No Entry!!!!…

These are my daily thoughts in life by the way!!

So this schedule allows us to keep a good balance between the needs of both my kids, and Meghan seems to love it as well. She has so much going on at school with the activities there, she even has school on Saturdays—which she loves.

So that’s my story… and I’m sticking to it!!