It seemed like a good idea at the time…

You know that thing about kids sleeping through fire alarms? It’s true—they don’t hear a thing when it’s going off in the middle of the night. I know this because I just tested it out.

Yup, that’s right – it was a 5:00 a.m. fire drill that only Tim woke up for. Grace and I were already up watching Martha Stewart reruns while making turkey and wild rice soup and folding laundry. We had been at this since 2:30 a.m. when for no reason Grace decided that we should get up and start our day. And no, she has never done this before. And no, she was not really out of her routine yesterday. And no, she was not sick, hungry, or otherwise in need of anything. She, it seems, just thought we ought to get an early start.

Actually, I think she heard Tim come home at 1:30 a.m. and it just took me until 2:30 a.m. to be unable to ignore her any longer. It could also have been because I was woken from a dream where I was stressing out on a train while a baby cried in the background. I said to the person next to me that I was really looking forward to traveling without kids for this very reason and then suddenly Anna Mae was looking me in the eye. You know that feeling when you are startled awake because someone is staring at you? After jumping 4 feet into the air and realizing that the rude baby on the train was mine, I got up and changed her diaper, gave her a drink, and tucked her in with the magic sleep time blanket. It didn’t take, so I came downstairs to find things to do in the kitchen so that everyone else can sleep when I realized… it’s just the perfect time to run the self cleaning mode on the oven…  No, really – I’m home, I don’t need to bake anything, the oven is really a mess, and I don’t mind if the house is warmed up by the heat. Perfect time – I know…

Did I mention that Tim rolled in at 1:30 a.m.? Yea, so when the fire alarm went off and I was quickly opening doors and windows and fanning it with the broom – I think he was a bit – shall we say disgruntled? Oh, please…. I’m the one who is up with the baby and I already have dinner made, the dishwasher is unloaded, bills are paid, and I’m ready to start the laundry… Unfortunately, I’m fairly certain that I have just lost my claim on a nap later today…

After all that is there any surprise that Grace is now sound asleep in the highchair but, I can’t go back to bed because I have to keep on eye on the oven as the batteries have been taken out of the fire alarm, and I still have two self-cleaning hours left?