Yesterday was busy enough with art, swimming, violin and piano. I could have done without the 5am wake-up call from the baby wanting to rock in that f’ing chair and “Read Mommy! Read da book Mommy! Rock Mommy! Read da book chair! Mama!”

Hanna made it through a day of school which thankfully didn’t interfere with any of our organized activities and the girls dined on succulent thermos gruel, California rolls from the Sushi counter at Zehrs and shared a pear until Chloe spiked it on the van floor and five seconds or not, there’s really no right time to eat van hair and cracker crumbs affixed to a now thoroughly bruised pear.

I tried to be strong and wait to eat until we arrived home after 7pm but my curiosity got the better of me and I peeked into Hanna’s lunch bag to look for refuse. Score! A quarter of her bagel, I dug in. I asked Hanna why she didn’t finish her lunch and after she asked me to repeat myself due to my full doughy-mouth interfering with my speech, she said, “Oh, I dropped it under my desk so I didn’t want to eat it,” this as I remove the lid from the baby’s sippy cup to scrape the cream cheese from my tongue.

So when I finally got the girls home, bathed them, fed them a snack, warmed their milk, combed their hair 100 strokes, the following conversation caught me by surprise.

Hanna: Before Ellie was born, did you love me with all your heart?

Me: Yes.

Hanna: So, you did love me more than Ellie before? You had to love me less when she was born so you could make room to love her.

Me: When parents have more than one child, their hearts grow and they have more love so, you don’t have to worry about ever losing any of our love.

Ellie: Just like money Hanna. When you want more, you just get it.

Hanna: That doesn’t even make sense Ellie.

Ellie: Liar! Liar! Pants unfair!

And so on…..

Yawn.