Sound the Alarm

There's a reason they call it an alarm. It is intended to jolt you to attention. If you ignore it or shut it off, you will be in for a bigger alarm when you oversleep and then, due to some unknown noise, you are jolted awake. Glance at the clock. And panic.

That about sums up Carter's morning.

Like clockwork, he calls me each weekday morning at 7:45 to let me know he's fine and we'll run down any special instructions for the day -- start dishwasher, feed cat, ride bus home, etc. Then, at 8 a.m., he walks next door and gets on the bus with them at 8:20.

Being a typical Monday morning, I got busy dealing with weekend messages and emails and, before I knew it, it was 7:50 and Carter hadn't called. So I called home. Got voicemail after 6 or 8 rings. Waited half a minute and called again. Same thing. I was going about 5 minutes before I alerted hubby. He then called our next-door neighbor and asked her to walk over and ring the door bell. We hoped he was just sleeping and something hadn't happened.

Finally, a few minutes after 8, he answered (my 9th time calling) and he was in a panic. The neighbor had just been there and he was running late and he was definitely shedding a tear or two. He just kept saying, "I'm sorry." I didn't think he had anything to apologize for. I just wanted him to get dressed and eat something quick before going to school. There wasn't much I could do over the phone to comfort him but tell him to take some deep breaths .... and get a move on!

After school, he called when he got home and let me know his day went OK. He was much more calm. "You know what's weird, Mom? On Thursday I forgot my sweatshirt at school. On Friday I forgot my trumpet on the bus. And today I forgot to get up!" Well, I told him, "They say bad things happen in 3's so maybe you are done." Sure, he replies, "Let's just go with that analogy."

OK, first of all, I am happy he's all better -- even though he insists on jumping out of bed from now on like it's a true "alarm." Secondly, what 11-year-old uses the word "analogy"?

Yikes.

Daddy did joke that Carter should probably get to bed by 7:30 tonight just so he gets enough sleep.

I blame Daylight Savings Time. If I didn't have a slumbering body next to me kicking me out of bed, I probably would have overslept today, too!