Last night after all the kids were in bed, Richard and I were engrossed in an episode of Mr. Selfridge when Eli came downstairs to air a grievance.  Richard and I half listened and then told Eli to go back to bed.  

Eli returned a second time, desperately wanting to share the details of his argument with Cameron but I was too interested in Agnes Towler to pay any mind to my son and so I shushed him and threatened consequences if he came down again.  We heard no more from Eli.  But there must have been harsh words spoken, because this morning Eli got out of bed early, before anyone else.  (This is extremely rare for Eli. He is the child we most often have to drag out of bed.)  He wrote this note to Cameron: 

Dear, Cam
I did this to show you that I care about you.  
From Eli

I learned after the fact, that it was Eli’s intention to make amends by serving Cameron breakfast to accompany the note.  But when Cameron woke up, he was apparently so moved by the gesture that together they concocted a plan to serve breakfast to the entire family.  We were all presented with a menu, whereupon we selected our choices- you will note that the items are all “free”, and then our meal was prepared.  

It was one of those moments where my first impulse was to tell the boys that we didn’t have time for their shenanigans, I would make breakfast because I could do it faster and they could execute their plan another day.  But something (perhaps guilt from ignoring Eli the night before?) compelled me otherwise.  It made the morning more stressful, rather than less, but I’m sure you can imagine that I have no regrets.