An unearned treat

Today was a day of one pain-in-the-a%# thing after another. It started at 4:45 am, when Agatha woke up (teething?), followed by Henry getting up at 5:15 having wet his bed. Everyone seemed whiny and unreasonable today (insisting on wearing Mom's new red gloves while eating his pesto for lunch? really? why go to the mat on that one?). I was blindsided by some annoying political maneuvering at a meeting; Michael messed up the finish on the frame he's spent hours working on; you get the picture. At 3 o'clock I decided to shake things up and take the children out to the local cafe for a treat. No onedeserved a treat, mind you. But we needed one. It turned out to be just the ticket. The children sat and ate their frosted dog-shaped sugar cookies, which made them feel good, and the other patrons admired and praised them, which made me feel good. We went across the street to the used book store and they played with the train set and I browsed, and all of us (including Michael at home, having a break) could lose ourselves for a few minutes in what we were doing. Which was nice.

The one triumph of the day: I got Agatha a new potty, on clearance. It is shaped like a frog, and she LOVES it.