I'll Take Door #2, Monty

Considering that we just got back from vacation and everybody was still pretty tired, I opted to let most of the family sleep in yesterday--it was Friday, after all--which has traditionally been our "Free Day," though I no longer offer the kids that luxury. But Fridays still have that "end-of-the-week" feel to them, and everybody's mood is just a little elevated from what it was Thursday night.

When Sawyer woke up, Randy and I both headed for his room where we took part in his little morning rise and shine routine. That's where Peyton found us, and she joined in the fun. Then she asked Randy if he wanted to play a game before he left for work, and of course he couldn't say no to Peyton! Everybody got their showers and ate breakfast and the next thing I know, Randy is herding all the kids out to the garage and into the van. Turns out they had decided to play "Ghost in the Graveyard" and Randy thought it would be more fun to play at the church building! I reminded him that it was a school day but he assured me that they would not be gone long.

And they weren't, but it did put us quite behind schedule. We still got in an hour and a half or so of work before breaking for lunch, but the bulk of our day still lay before us in the afternoon. And things were clicking along really well until about 2:30 when Sawyer decided he wanted me to read him a book--NOW. Now Sawyer is understanding of the need for quiet when we're doing our read-alouds and he is typically very compliant, but on this day he was just looking for a little extra attention so every couple of minutes he would come over to my chair and say, "Mom, will you PLEASE read this to me now?" and I would say, "Bubby, we're in the middle of reading about Honest Abe right now but I'll read to you when we're finished." A minute or so later he'd go, "How about now?" "Not yet, bud." "Now?" "No." "Ready yet?" "No!" It reminded me of the SpongeBob Squarepants episode where SpongeBob and Patrick want Squidward to go jelly-fishing with them and . . . oh, never mind, you'd have to have seen it.

Bless his heart, Sawyer tried to be patient but finally, he pulled out the big guns and offered me an ultimatum:

"Okay, here's the deal . . . You have three choices: You can either read this book to me right now, you can go upstairs to your room or you can go down and play in the basement. What's it gonna be?" I just laughed and said, "If those are my choices, I totally pick Choice #2 'cause I can go take a nap!" I could just see the little wheels in Sawyer's brain turning, and his mind going, "Wait, what went wrong here? She was supposed to pick Choice #1! Drat!"