The Unthinkable Came to Pass

It finally happened. I knew it would one day, and I feared it's coming. That day was this weekend.

I slept, and didn't hear that Micah was up.

I have so enjoyed having kids grow out of the toddler stage and being trustworthy enough to allow them to be up and about in the morning while I lay in bed with one ear open and both eyes closed. It was a sweet reward for being up at night for too many years with babies. And then Micah came along. Micah couldn't be trusted when I was awake and in the room right beside him, so there was no way that I could trust him while I faux-slept. Micah is Mr. Independent personified. He *will* do it, thankyouverymuch, and no, he doesn't need help. He can do everything that the rest of the family can do. Just ask him. Some things that Micah has attempted to do in the past:

*Pour himself some milk. This resulted in a half gallon of milk on the kitchen floor. The dogs were lapping like there was no tomorrow.

*Help himself to shredded cheese. He loves it. The dogs love when he helps himself to cheese because he dumps the entire bulk size bag of it into his bowl. Whatever doesn't fit into his bowl overflows onto the floor. We've fed more 2-pound bags of cheese to the dogs than I care to count.

*Microwave something. He knows the concept of how the microwave works, but just can't get the timing right on things. He once put a piece of pizza in for 23 minutes. I caught it somewhere around the 1.5 minute mark. Thank goodness.

*Let the dogs out, just to be a good job helper to mommy. The dogs then roam the hood (because 4 acres isn't enough to roam) and we've had to call the Humane Society asking them to look out for a collarless corgi. We then get in Big Deep Trouble by said society for not having the dog neutered. It mattered not to them that said dog was used for breeding purposes; in fact, it made matters worse. Our name is probably on a nation wide black list.

So you understand why sleeping past Micah's wake-up is not a good thing at all. I've no idea how it happened, and when I looked at the clock and it read 8:00 (rather than the standard 6 something), I instantly stopped breathing and listened. Micah was up. Crap. The boys were also up. Maybe not as crappy as it could be. Upon entering the kitchen, I saw that the boy was at work again. I've no idea where the other boys were, but Micah was busy and unattended for quite some time. Also, he was hungry for salad and feeling generous. Micah chopped an entire head of lettuce, divvied it into six bowls, and topped each bowl with carrots. A whole bag of carrots. I'm incredibly grateful that we buy the baby carrots and those didn't need chopped.

My kitchen counter is sporting a lot of new nicks. I'm not happy about this, but am incredibly grateful that there was no blood anywhere.