this kid does not trust me to wake him up in the morning. he takes it all on himself. most mornings, he is up at 6:46 a.m., give or take a few minutes. his door slowly creaks open and i can tell immediately who it is, based on the sound of his quick, quiet footsteps. First he heads to the bathroom, next i hear him washing his hands. Then he either opens our door and asks a really random question (“when are you going to pay me the money that you owe me, mom?”) or quietly goes into the laundry room across from our room and gets himself dressed. Next, he’s talking to the cats as they're following him from the bathroom to our room to the laundry room, hungrily meowing [pet peeve #342: the sound of meowing cats rubbing against our door in the morning], and goes downstairs to feed them.
After he’s fed the cats, he goes into the storage room and finds a brand new box of cereal to open- never mind that we have 23 boxes of opened cereal currently in the pantry, probably even the same kind that he’s just chosen. [pet peeve #545: opening a brand new box of cereal or other item that is already opened]
While he is eating his breakfast, he tells himself jokes and laughs at himself. Soon, he is up peeking into our room again. This time, he’s asking if he can play on the computer. “After you are dressed and ready for school,” I always say. To which he laughs heartily, comes into the room a little further and reveals that not only is he dressed, but he is wearing his shoes, coat, gloves, hat, backpack and lunchbox. Yes, he is ready to go. He is ready for school, which starts at 8:30, and it is only 7 a.m.
It’s going to be a long morning of waiting.
After he plays on the computer, he wakes the girls up- who don’t always listen to him [pet peeve #427: having to get out of bed to wake the girls up myself because they won’t take Nolan seriously]. Next, it’s on to Legos, building and creating.
Soon, he is watching the clock. it’s 7:40-something. First, panic sets in. “Mom! it’s 7:44. Ellison and Emma haven’t even eaten breakfast yet! They’re never going to be ready! We’re going to be LATE FOR SCHOOL!”
“It’s 7:45! We’re going to be late!”
“It’s 7:46! We’re never going to make it in time!”
Then the begging begins…
“It’s 7:47! We’re going to be late! Will you PLEASE drive us today, mom? I don’t want to be LATE for school today! Please?!!”
and on and on until it’s 8 or just after 8 (just short of a panic attack), when they finally get themselves out the door for that long, dreaded 11-minute walk up the hill to school.
where they have not once been late to school this year.
Wow...I would love to inject my kids with just a smidgen of that get up and go. :) Good Job Nolan for feeding the cats. I share that pet peeve.
ReplyDeleteway to kick it up a notch on the photos ... love the watermark! seriously, i would cry if my children were up that early in the morning. mostly because it's not long before that that i've actually fallen to sleep myself for the night. which is why i am dreading my first child in school this next year. what in the world am i going to do? not a big fan of the morning!
ReplyDeleteThat's awesome! At least one of your children has a [good] sense of urgency. I wish Nolan could rub some of that on to Rob :)
ReplyDeleteoh the cereal pet peeve! I Hate it when the kids find that there is NEW cereal and the OLD cereal is not gone yet. Great job NOLAN!
ReplyDeleteI got a good laugh out of this! It reminded me of my oldest who is 9. He gets mad at me when I don't wake him up by 7:30 a.m. because it ruins his "schedule". But, just to keep me on my toes, if he gets up on his own, he likes to sneak around getting ready for school and if I should chance to see him before he's done he falls to pieces. So, I have to carefully check the crack under his door for a sliver of light to see if he's still asleep or not. If it's dark, I can tell him to get up, but I have to hurry out of there to avoid being grumped at for not waking him up sooner and also for waking him up at all (it's a double-edged sword). If the light is on, I hurry back upstairs so he won't see that I've discovered him. If he's made it upstairs before I get up, I have to pretend I don't know he's around (though he's pretty good at hiding now).
ReplyDeleteMy daughter is the one that obsesses about being on time. Every morning after we get in the car to go to school she asks, "Are we late?" I've started answering her before she even asks. Granted, we are always hurrying out the door, so I explained that I hurry them to PREVENT them from being late. Still, she asks every morning and any time we're on our way to some time sensitive event...birthday parties, church, dance class etc.
What can I say, life with kids is very entertaining.
Oh, and get outdoor cats.
haha, that's so cute!
ReplyDelete