My Favorite Child

I have a favorite child. It’s not always the same child of course. It depends on the time of day.

In the morning my favorite child is Chiara because when she wakes up, she crawls into bed with me and cuddles and makes cute snuggly sounds. She tells me what she dreamt and then she slips off to set the table for breakfast.

Getting ready for school my favorite child is Wagner because he is so enthusiastic about his clothes. His face lights up when he gets to wear a digger on his chest or a penguin or a panda. And now that he knows his colors, he even gets excited about wearing stripes.

Getting in the car my favorite child is Michael because he climbs right into his car seat. He is so anxious to get on the road, he even tries to buckle himself in. Yesterday he expressed his desire to be snapped into his seat by calling out: “Mama! I wanna be stuck!”

At naptime my favorite child is the one who isn’t awake yet.

In the car my favorite child is Chiara. If the boys are crying, she’ll tell them a story. Last week she told them about the time when Cookie Monster got a baby sister. His mama had to go into the hospital for many days and his grandma came and stayed with him because his daddy said, “I have to go stay with Mama in the hospital.” And then Cookie Monster’s sister was born and she was really tiny. The time before that she started her story with, “Today I’m going to tell you all about tornadoes and forest fires.”

At random times during the day my favorite child is Wagner, who spontaneously steps into arabesque and will always give me kisses.

At mealtime my favorite child is Michael because he’s really weird with his food and I can totally relate to that. Wagner would eat cardboard if it were served in the right color bowl (blue and not turquoise, in case you’re wondering) but Michael’s the kid who cries if you cut his banana the wrong way. He’s big into fruits and vegetables, especially cucumbers, but not too big on meat. I like the way he sits in front of his food, barely picking at it and yet still insisting that he’s not done.

At night my favorite child is the one who’s asleep. There are actually times when I have three favorite children.