Breakfast in Bed

Breakfast in bed.  It sounds amazing, doesn't it?  The image I'm picturing is pretty fantastic.  After I sleep in until - let's just say 9am (right!) - I am awakened by my husband, followed by four sweet children who have made me breakfast.  I'm thinking eggs, sausage, toast, orange juice.  Yum.  Just thinking about it makes me hungry, and sleepy!    

This morning I woke up to something else.  And strangely, it was also pretty fantastic. 

I woke up to a strange noise coming from my kitchen.  Naturally, I reached over to see if Chris was still in bed and smacked his face accidentally.  If he wasn't in there, who was?  I looked at the clock, 6:10.  An hour before I normally get up.  I woke Chris up and told him someone was in the kitchen.  He sat straight up immediately and looked in that direction.  Pretty quickly (despite some nervous thoughts on my part)  he saw Sophia.  He called her in and asked her what she was doing. 

She started to describe her morning.  She had come into our room and gone to the bathroom and then went in to the kitchen and got out the toaster.  (It's in the cabinet above our sink so she had to stand on the counter and sink just to reach it.)  Then she made herself toast and ate it.  Next she made Chris and I each 3 pieces of toast.  Then she made her and her sister's sack lunches for school and got out everyone's coats and backpacks so they'd be ready to go.  I rubbed my eyes and just asked how long she had been up.  "5:50!  I just woke up and remembered my idea to surprise you!"  She brought in our toast on separate trays.  Chris' was on a cutting board, and mine on a cookie sheet.  

Holy cow, lady!   First, Sophia is not an early riser.  She gets up when the alarm goes off - and of course I set it for as late as I can!  Second, Sophia is not naturally the nurturing/caretaker type.  She really has to be encouraged to care for her siblings and help out around the house.  And third, the kid has never been allowed to make toast before.  I know she's old enough, but it's just been easier/safer to do it myself.  But in my mind, the real shocker is that Chris and I slept through all of that.  Isn't that crazy and a little bit scary at the same time?  Why does a single cry from one of them wake us up when we can sleep through all of that? 

Since I was half-asleep as she told us all this I rubbed my eyes and asked her if she wanted to snuggle (aka:  momma fall back asleep) and then eat.  Nope, she wanted to watch us enjoy our food so we sat up and ate some toast.  And since she was pretty liberal with the peanut butter, we chewed.  And chewed.  But oh, how sweet it was.  She was such a loving little girl surprising us in such an amazing way.  And, I honestly think it was better than any "breakfast in bed" fantasy I've ever had!