Almost every night before I fall asleep, Taylor asks me to make sure to wake him up the next morning before I leave for work.
I leave for work at 7.
Taylor likes to get to work early, but he can pretty much get there whenever he wants.
(pretty spoiled, isn't he?)
Every morning when I try to wake him up, he does one of the following things:
1. puts on a puppy face and asks to sleep for a little bit longer
2. says, "I actually went to sleep really late last night, so I'm going to sleep in a little."
3. insists that he is awake but just laying in bed to stay warm
4. signs in ASL "sleep more please"
5. tells me really nice things like "you're beautiful, I love you, I'll miss you today," gives me a kiss goodbye, and then stays in bed.
My reactions to these things (in respect to the order above):
1. Taylor's puppy face is killer. I can never say no to his puppy face. Which is why I've told him he's only allowed to use it twice a month.
2. Well, if he went to sleep late, then he shouldn't wake up early.
3. Great, my job is done!
4. ASL is a straight way to my heart. And he knows it.
5. How can I pull him out of bed when he was just so sweet?
Since he doesn't really have to be to work early, I figure it's not a big deal to let him keep sleeping.
Then, when I see him later that evening he will always say,
"Kelli! I told you to wake me up this morning!"
"I tried! But you..." Then I proceed to tell him that he did one of the following five things.
Taylor: "I will do and say anything to stay in bed. You HAVE to wake me up!"
So the next morning, I am determined to wake him up...until he does one of those five things.
Then I'm pudding.
And I leave him laying there, because he looks so cute!
(p.s. for #3, he does stay in bed, but he goes back to sleep)
This routine (trying to wake him up, failing, and then the same conversation every night) has been going on for awhile now.
The problem is that sometimes he really does end up staying up until 2 or 3 in the morning doing homework. And I never know if he is telling the truth or not when I try waking him up.
Finally, last night, I had a brilliant idea.
I made a sign.
Green on one side.
Red on the other.
And I hung it by his side of the bed.
I told Taylor: "At night, before you go to sleep, you flip the sign to red or green. Green means "wake me up" and red means "let me sleep."
Whatever color I see when I wake up is the one I will follow...no matter what.
Don't laugh at the ghetto-ness of this sign.
I seriously made it in 2 minutes last night.
And the ripped red paper was the last piece of red paper I had, so I figured it would have to do.
I made sure to include an oath on the green side:
"I, Taylor Ray Gilbert, promise to love you no matter what means you resort to, in order to accomplish the above task."
This morning was green.
And man alive, I used every force I could to get that boy out of bed.
AND, I succeeded.
I think this sign thing will do its job just splendidly.
