Spawnling has asked me for cereal about five times today. No milk, just dry cereal. Every time I have given him what he's asked for.

'Mommy, I want cereal,' he demands in his kingly way.

'Don't you want something else instead? Like a banana, or some cheese, or an apple?' I ask with very little conviction.

'No. Cereal,' he thinks for a moment, then grins widely in that manipulative way children instinctively use to lure in their mothers. 'Pleeeeeaaase?'

I could argue with him, but I don't. I don't because that would take energy that simply must go elsewhere today.

If I say no and he starts to cry and scream and throw himself on the ground, it means that I have less patience to care for still feverish Gutsy.

If I say no, I have less energy to meet the demands of the Laundry Leviathan that grows and grows unless it is tamed regularly.

If I say no, I have less time to work on my portfolio in hopes of landing one of those jobthingies everyone else seems to have.

If I say no, I have less brain capacity to structure my day into the important categories: breathing, eating, Rockband, childcare (can also be Rockband), housework, exercise (can also be Rockband), job hunting, looking pretty, and the all important blogging.

Plus, we must look at all the health benefits of fortified cereal. If we are to close our eyes and ignore any nutritional education we've had on how poorly many vitamins and minerals in fortified foods are absorbed, we can smile stupidly at the side of the box and think we're doing a great job at giving little Spawnling his daily iron and vitamin A requirements.

If we sink a little deeper into Duhville we can skip merrily out of the kitchen after filling the Toddler Terror's bowl full of cereal sweetened not with sugar but with juice. And doesn't that mean he's getting a serving of fruit, too? And isn't fruit full of antioxidants? How delightful! What a healthy gift to bestow upon my child! His brain and body are getting exactly what they need from dry, little, coloured circles. Ah, science! It's a marvelous thing.

Life is all about perspective. Today, I'm choosing to look at everything through the lovely rose-coloured glasses of denial. Sure, my child has had nothing but cereal in his belly all day, but it's only 11:30AM, and hey, my laundry is all but caught up and, even better still, I blogged.

Yep. It's a pat myself on the back kind of day. Looking at life like this makes me realize that I am so awesome it's not even funny.