On the Clock

So somewhere, somehow, Jack has learned how to tell time. Unfortunately, this does not necessarily include the input of a clock. Today as we were watching our morning cartoons, I told him, "As soon as this show is over, we are leaving for school." (He likes to be told in advance what is next on his itinerary...not unlike Donald Trump.)

"OK Mama, but that is not for 10 minutes." And he was right!! He has this bizarre internal clock that really works. And 9-minutes later he says to me, "Maybe one more show?" Such a finagler. He tries this at bedtime, and he knows when I am too tired to put up a fight. He looks into my eyes and judges the amount of energy I have left in my body to deal with him, and if it's low enough, he turns on the charm. The other night he convinced me that we should watch Futurama in my bed before bedtime, and since it was only 8pm, I agreed...foolishly. Well, we got cozy with the lights off and I immediately fell asleep--leaving him to watch an episode of Futurama and an hour of the news--before he woke me up (by slapping my face repeatedly).

"Mommy!" he said, "it's past my bedtime!"