What Did You Do to My Kids?

I woke up 5 minutes before my alarm was to go off this morning. It’s been years since I’ve had to rely on an alarm clock. The kids weren’t awake yet and the husband was still sleeping so I tip toed out of bed and went to the living room to catch the first few minutes of the news. I wanted a few minutes to myself before everyone woke up and the day came roaring to a start.

Fifteen minutes later, the major headlines are over and the regular features are starting and I’m still alone in the living room. My husband walks in and is bewildered that the children aren’t up yet. He too sits down to watch the news.

Then, our 5 year old gets up. Then the two year old follows him into the living room.

“Mommy,” he says, “I was just reading a story to my sister this morning.”

I ask my daughter, was your brother reading to you? “Yes,” she says.

Oh, my gosh, where did my children go?

Then, my son asks me what I want for breakfast. HUH? He repeats the request, because I guess I didn’t answer.

“Mommy, what do you want for breakfast — that’s not something to cook.”

“How about some cereal,” I reply.

Next thing I know a bowl of Raisin Bran is being delivered to me — while I watch the news! You see, on a normal day, when my kids are busy being my kids, we’re full-on cartoon mode and my husband and I are relegated to seeing snippets of the news as we pop in and out of our bedroom while the other tries to keep sanity in the living room. There was no request for a cartoon today.

There was no screaming. No complaigning. No fighting. I got to watch 50 — that’s FIVE, ZERO — minutes of news today while they got themselves breakfast and just hung out.

So, I don’t know what happened to my kids today, but I am loving it.