The last few mornings of getting Pookster ready for school have been a little bit less than fun. She usually wakes up crying, drinks her milk, and then picks at her (first) breakfast and cries for her pacifier. She’s definitely teething, as I can see when I brush her teeth that there are even more teeth coming, but it’s been pretty miserable. She’s usually a great eater, but the last three mornings, her eating has been pretty terrible. She will eat a couple spoonfuls of Weetbix, a couple bites of greens, beets, or mushrooms, maybe 6 spoonfuls of yogurt and almond butter, and then whine and whinge to get out of her high chair. She’ll demand to walk and get out of the chair, but once out, she refuses to walk and wants to sit. Or, even worse, she will splay her entire body all over the play mat, face down, and cry.

At the end of the day (or, well, morning), I just need to get her ready to get out the door. So I try to coax her to eat between getting her snacks and lunch box packed, then clean her up, do her hair, dress her, clean up her high chair and splat mat, and do all the dishes. Once she’s finally in the stroller seat, she seems to calm down, but it’s definitely a struggle to get to that point. When is this supposed to get easier?