Breakfast of champions...or not.

Breakfast is a difficult meal around our house. It always seems to be chaotic and I can't ever be prepared enough to make my three monkeys happy. 

The basic, morning scenario at our house goes something like this: Ethan wakes up at about 6:00, comes stomping into our bedroom, and whines about how he doesn't want to be alone in the living room. So, I have to drag myself out of bed to go and sit on the couch while he plays, even though he's perfectly capable of entertaining himself. He also takes great pleasure in waking Nicholas, who doesn't like to get up that early, so he spends 30 minutes crying and moaning because he's still half-asleep. I try to keep them quiet so Zoe can sleep in for a few more minutes. About 6:15-ish, they both start asking for breakfast.

The problems with feeding them so early is that they'll have to wait about six hours for lunch, and neither one of them is super hungry, so they don't eat enough to matter. Within the next hour, they'll both be back in the kitchen, saying they're hungry and begging for food, usually right after I've finished up cleaning up the first breakfast mess.

Also, when they get up and start demanding food so early, I don't really have time to make anything. This starts an argument, and Ethan is the spokesman.

"What do you guys want for breakfast? Eggs?"
"No, we don't like eggs. Well, Nick-Nick likes eggs and I like eggs, but Zoe doesn't."
"Okay, what about pancakes?"
"No! I want Pop-Tarts!"
"I'll put chocolate chips in them."
"Pop-Tarts!"
"Honey, you can't eat Pop-Tarts all the time. You need to eat some other things that are good for you."
"Oh. Well, can I have some cereal?"
"What about some eggs and sausage?"
"NO! I want some cereal with milk in it!"

Keep in mind this is just Ethan. Nicholas and Zoe are over there, putting in their two cents as well. Also keep in mind that whatever I give the boys, I have to come up with a worthy, dairy-free substitute for Zoe. This morning, they actually let me make some biscuits, but they still didn't eat much, so I'm anticipating a request for second breakfast in about an hour or two. That's bad news, because the kitchen just got cleaned. Ugh.