Summer Started Early, But I'll Probably Regret It

Way back in January when I was bottle feeding puppies, life somehow changed. At the peak of my exhaustion, I realized that not much mattered in the general scheme of life. At least things that I once thought mattered. Things like a clean house or a hot meal (or a meal at all if there were leftovers in the fridge) or even showing up on time. While those things are important, they're not life altering and you just don't need to stress over them. The house will be cleaned later, nobody dies if they have to make a peanut butter sandwich for themselves, and arriving late is better than not arriving at all. Which also happened on occasion. And the world did not implode. Bottle feeding puppies is a learning experience that I recommend to absolutely nobody, mostly because of the sleep deprivation that goes along with it. Seriously, people, I still have panicky flashbacks on occasion when I have to set my alarm.

Which brings me to the point of what I'm saying. While I do set my alarm for 6:35AM Monday through Friday to get Micah on the bus, there has been many times that the boy just wouldn't wake up when I poked him (or pulled him, or sat him upright only to watch him fall face first onto his pillow...). It takes some persistence and a fair amount of gumption to get the boy up if he's not ready to get up. Which is ironic, since he has such trouble sleeping, and staying asleep. I CAN'T WIN THIS GAME. And when I was running on survival mode only, my gumption was completely gone. I didn't have the gumption to brush my teeth most mornings, much less carry an 80 pound sleeping mass downstairs and dress it. (Don't judge. Just know that exhaustion does bad things to good people.)

It was then that I learned that if Micah misses his bus on occasion, I can just drive him to school when he wakes up and nobody will be adversely affected. In my numbed state, my conscience was dulled and I had no qualms at all about letting him sleep in on occasion. Or a few times a week. (DON'T JUDGE. I WAS EXHUASTED.) It happened so frequently that at one point I realized he hadn't caught the bus in almost 2 weeks. I rock this thing called parenting. And then I realized that it was May and he was still sleeping in and missing the bus on occasion, and I still didn't care. In fact, I wondered why on earth the kids were still going to school. Shouldn't summer be here?

Today was Micah's last full day of school. He slept until 9AM. (His bus comes at 7.) I can count on one hand how often the boy has slept until 9 in his entire life. He's doing this just to yank my chain, because come summer break, he'll be up at 5:30 consistently. It's the way he rolls. I poked him and pulled him and sat him upright only to watch him fall face first on his pillow, and realized there was no getting that boy up until he was ready to wake all on his own. At 9:00. And after I ran him to school, I also realized that I wasn't even going to fight the battle tomorrow. On his last day, he'll be let out at 10AM. I made all the phone calls to let his staff know he will be missing his last day of school. Summer vacation starts a day early for Micah.

Which just means he'll be up at 5:30 in the morning and I'll wonder why on EARTH I told his aide to stay home and enjoy her summer a bit earlier than planned.