Johann and His Salami Bread

Johann is increasingly getting difficult recently.  With his food.  Ultimately, he still finishes his food.  But he certainly makes every meal a slow and frustrating process for us.  He repeats the same one-line story, "I am so full."  He doesn't get his way, but he sure is persistent.  He secretly hopes we will relent to him if he thinks he has said enough times.  He doesn't give up.  But hehe... we also don't give up.  But boy, oh boy!  Why do you want to torture us?  At the end of the day, you still have to finish your food, why do you want to make it so hard for all of us?  Why, Johann, why?

Most of the time, I get agitated easily due to time pressure, of having him to get changed, of having him to eat his breakfast, and of having to send him to the kindergarten by 9am (and on Tuesdays and Fridays to school by 8am and 8.45am respectively).  He is s-l-o-w.  

This morning, I had assumed it was no exception at breakfast.  When I came back upstairs from hanging the laundry, I knew he must still be laying on the sofa, not wanting to get going.  Since we had a bit of time for him to laze a little longer, I went straight to the kitchen to keep some things back to the fridge.  I know what I have in the fridge, what and where.  I couldn't see where my butter was.  That is odd as I did not use it today, much less take it out.  I automatically looked around the kitchen but there was no butter in sight.  Next possible place would be the dining table.

You do not know how positively surprised I was at what I saw.  Johann was already halfway through his breakfast, I did not even have to invite him this time!  The butter was on the table.  He fetched it himself and spread it thickly on his bread, which I had already prepared for him.  Bread with salami, without butter.  "Mummy, it tastes better with butter" grinning proudly at me.  I was so pleased I only could stroke his hair, "you took the butter by yourself? Are you so tall already that you are able to reach it?"

That simple gesture of taking his breakfast on his own without my asking lightens my mood tremendously.  It is like loosening your belt when you have eaten too much, that instant relief only you could comprehend.

Johann, can you please repeat this every morning, every meal?  You could add one more year to my life, you know?