Just Once...Please!

I remember writing a few years back about the challenges of sleeping in on Saturday mornings with a little Benjamin running around the house. Ben's older now. He doesn't present any problems anymore. And yet, sleeping in on a Saturday morning, something which I dream of doing, I spend the entire week looking forward to, still doesn't seem to happen.

Typically, it's Josh that wakes us up. At 6 AM on a Saturday morning, there's a knock on our day, "clack, clack, clack," in rapid succession. No answer from us, as we slowly emerge from our sleepy fog. "Clak, clak, clak," it comes again, and then one of us answers, "fmwhaaat?"

"Can I watch T.V.?"

Now, this is what I don't understand. This is a question that he has asked every Saturday morning at 6 AM for at least a year. It's a pattern, "clak, clak, clak, yada, yada, yada, can I watch T.V.? Yes!" With every passing Saturday, the answer is more emphatic, more imploring, "Yes, for the love of all that is holy, YES!" But the damage is done. There's no chance of getting to sleep after that. Oh, I try, and you'd think with the ever darkening autumn mornings that it would be easier, but I never can get solidly back to sleep.

We've tried. We've sat him down the night before, "now, Josh, tomorrow morning, you can watch T.V.; you don't need to ask," but without fail, "clak, clak, clak." We've written a note and posted it on the door, and knowing that Josh couldn't read well at the time, we emphasized the important parts, "YES...T.V." Then, "clak, clak, clak." No! No! Please, sleepy land, come back! *sigh*

Finally, finally, Amy did it. She found a way to get it done. She bought a nice, sugary cereal that would turn any adult instantly diabetic, she put bowls out on the counter, she made sure that the milk was low enough in the container for Ben to pour, and she sat Joshua down and explained, "here are all of these things, a kid's Saturday morning Mecca, go forth, be fruitful and consume! Watch T.V. Let it lull you into a hypnotic stupor, and let us... oh, please... let us sleep."

It worked. There was no Josh this morning. He was thrilled with his Saturday Morning Wonderland. Instead, there was Joseph at 4 in the morning, "clak, clak, clak. I need to go potty." Followed by, the muffled sounds of the T.V., which had been left on the night before (Ben had his friend spend the night) playing the opening menu to a Spongebob DVD in a loop. And then, as if the fates have nothing better to do than deprive me of one or two sweet hours of sleep-filled bliss on a Saturday morning, there was a sound that I have grown to despise after several years of work. "BEEP...BEEP...BEEP...BEEP...BEEP," at 6:30 AM, as Ben's alarm clock rang out at full volume, Ben sleeping on the couch downstairs and unware. Then, around 7, "clak, clak, clak," again, sweet, sweet little Joseph informs us, "it's morning already!"

Yes, yes. Already it is. The opportunity's passed, and morning, which shouldn't have come until at least 9 AM, is here. I do not hope any more that I'll be able to sleep in on a Saturday morning. Maybe I'll get an afternoon nap. That works sometimes. But now, what I really hope for lies 10 years in the future, when three teenaged boys finally understand the beauty that is sleeping in on a Saturday morning. And admittedly, I look a little forward to, "clak, clak, clak. Get it up, Josh! It's time for Seminary!"