A low tolerance for more kids than mine

Sometimes, you have to do something truly horrendous to yourself, in order to reassure yourself of the life choices you've made.
Today, I did just that.
Today, I chaperoned a second-grade field trip to the botanical gardens.
If you can believe it, I've been getting a lot of static lately from my daughter because she doesn't have a sister to play with at home. She's become adept at pouting about it. In fact, she asked me recently if there was "an orphanage or something nearby so we can go adopt a sister" for her. Like orphanages have storefronts set up in malls, or like all we have to do is go into a place and pick someone to bring home. I've tolerated these conversations well, but when they're over, I find myself wondering what our lives would be like if we did have another baby in the house. That mindset is exactly the reason why today's field trip was miraculous.
Hey! Guess what! I'm frickin' crazy happy to only have one kid to deal with day in and day out. With more than one child, they pick on each other, hurt each other's feelings, push and pull, and are super loud to compete for attention. News flash: when you only have one kid, they can't mess around with anyone else, so it's quieter. They can't hurt someone or bug them just to be difficult, so it's quieter. They already have all your attention, so it's quieter.
Also, let's give a self-congratulatory shout out to the fact that my kid is a girl. Boys are so ... boyish. They're running, kicking stuff, standing where they shouldn't, talking too much and not listening, and trying to catch the butterflies even after they'd been told a hundred times to not try to touch the butterflies.
Tonight, my body is exhausted from having to deal with more than once child for an extended amount of time. My throat hurts from calling names all morning. My shoulders are sunburned (not the children's faults, but still, I'm uncomfortable). My ears aren't ringing anymore, but I still have the memory. And more importantly, my resolve is beyond fortified that I did the absolute right thing for my own sanity in having the one child.
And the day was all worth it because my child thought the entire field trip was boring.