I let my daughter eat cheese puffs for breakfast

I don't think I'm a bad mom - I read to my kids every day, I tell them I love them constantly, they are always hugged, kissed, or tickled, I bathe them quite regularly, they have clean clothes, etc. They love vegetables and fruit, and I try to serve healthy meals (with the exception of the occasional Happy Meal).

Therefore, it certainly can't be my fault that my daughter ate cheese puffs for breakfast today, right? I wholeheartedly blame Costco. I blame them for their barrel of yummy "made with real cheese" fantastic bite-size bits of cheesy goodness sold for an unbelievably low price. I blame them for the fact that this barrel is so huge, it won't fit in the pantry on top of the other super-size Costco boxes of yummy rations. I blame them that the only place these mini balls of cheesy fun will fit is on the kitchen counter next to the pantry door, so when I went to the pantry to take out the oatmeal, whole-grain cereal, Nutrigrain bar, flax, etc (insert your own healthy breakfast alternative here), my 1-year old daughter noticed the barrel of cheese puffs that she could probably fit comfortably into. So, what's a mom to say when her adorable baby looks lovingly into her eyes and mutters that wonderful sound "muh!" while obviously pointing to the gargantuan tub of cheese? Had we not been in a crazed rush to get out the door to day care, or had her older 3-year old sister not decided to change her entire wardrobe the minute before putting on her shoes to leave, or had her mom (me) not forgotten to make the 3-year old her lunch for preschool (she almost got cheese puffs for lunch), maybe her mom would have had time to feed her yogurt, or make whole-grain pancakes, but she didn't. So, is it a horrible thing that I dropped my daughter off at day care with orange fingers today? She got a nutritious lunch right? The 6-ounces of Vitamin D milk I fed her at 4:30am when she was crying makes up for it right? I can slip up once right? even twice maybe? Is "most important meal of the day" really true? (I know it is - I jest).

I should go now - if I make the whole-grain pancake batter now and put it in the fridge, I can probably pound out a couple of pancakes in no time tomorrow around 4:45 am, after I'm done feeding the baby, but before I get those last two blissful hours of sleep before the official start of the day :) Or maybe we'll just munch on Cheerios :)