Sleeping In

                         

I am the early bird in my house. I am up by 5 on the weekdays and around 6 on the weekends. Sleeping until 8 am is a magical thing that never happens. I typically don't mind getting up early. There is never a shortage of things to do. This past Saturday though, I really wanted to sleep in a little bit. It was cold, dreary and rainy outside. I opened my eyes at 5:30 and decided I would try to get a few more hours of sleep. Until my 6 year old came in my room at 6:01 and sat in between me and my husband. "Wake up, guys. It's morning." I groaned and buried myself deep in the comforters. "No. It's too early, go back to bed." "I'm not tired." "Then go play." She patted me on the head, "But I want you to play with me." She said it in her cute little girl voice. Normally, that would be enough to get me up but you know what? I wasn't giving in. If this was a 100 years ago I would be sending her 6 year old butt outside to milk cows and collect eggs. "No!" So she proceeded to sing very loudly and obnoxiously so we couldn't get back to sleep. "That's fine," I told her. "I'm sleeping until 8 o'clock and if you continue to keep me up I will stay in bed longer." She frowned but finally went off to play. I drifted back into glorious sleep....until 7:10. My 8 year old tapped me on the shoulder. "Mom, mom. I'm hungry, will you make us breakfast?" I rolled over half asleep, "At 8 o'clock." "But mama, I'm hungry now." What do the kids think this is? That I exist to serve them? They do. I was done. I was not going to waiver. I almost lost it, "You have legs. Go pour yourself a bowl of cereal. Eat a granola bar or some fruit. I will be up at 8." She pouted and she got her little sister and went downstairs.

I could hear them moving chairs and opening the fridge and pushing buttons on the microwave. I drifted back into sleep. Fifteen minutes later the kids came upstairs with their breakfast to eat picnic style next to our bed. These kids are on us like white on rice. They had made themselves pancakes (the toaster kind), veggie sausage, sliced apples with cream cheese dip and glasses of milk. WTF? "That's quite a breakfast you made yourself." My daughter smiled slyly. "It was easy. I know how to make food." Well, this certainly was news to me. "I can make pasta." "How do you do it?" "Well, you boil the water and put in the pasta until it is all floppy and you have to stir it. Then you put it in a bowl with holes in the sink and run it under the water. Then  you can put in sauce or cheese and vegetables or anything." I stared at her, intrigued. "Great!" I said, "You are in charge of dinner tonight." Then I feel back to sleep for another 1/2 hour while the kids ate the breakfast they had prepared themselves. I could get used to this.