Month: October 2011

After 8 years of conditioning I am a very light sleeper. I am regularly awakened by crying, coughing, and middle of the night bathroom trips (not mine, the Things). Often I have a hard time getting back asleep.

Last night, I woke up to strange sounds. At first, I thought it was Thing 4 crying because she has been sick this week and waking up a lot during the night. I finally realized it was muffled voices and saw the lights were on downstairs. It was 3:15 am.

I went downstairs and found Thing 2 on the couch, all the lights on, and the TV was playing. All of this actually isn’t that surprising for Thing 2. He said the crickets woke him up. But what was unusual about it was what he was watching. The replay of Jay Leno and the Tonight Show. He is six years old.

Today as Thing 1 was leaving for the bus stop, he handed me a paper I had to sign. Mornings are a bit chaotic, trying to get Thing 1 and Thing 2 out the door for the school bus at 7:25am, while also getting the younger Things dressed and fed.

One scenario is that he remembered just as he was walking out the door. It was the first day back after a long weekend, so it’s plausible that he forgot until this very last minute.

Or, another scenario that is just dawning on me as a likely one, is that he purposefully waited until the last moment so that, in the confusion, I would not read it and just sign it. ?If that was the plan, it worked. ?I assumed it was another reading log. ?We sign it to verify that he did his reading assignment.

As it turns out, the paper was to inform us that Thing 1 got in trouble at lunch on Friday. ?He was being loud and disruptive along with a bunch of other kids.

Lesson learned. ?When your kid hands you a paper and says “sign it”, make sure you read if first.

Here’s a picture of Thing 1 from this weekend. ?Don’t let the cuteness fool you. ?While he was picking apples and cheering for the Jets, he was also plotting a “sign and dash” that worked perfectly on me.