The Unexpected Things Bring Such Joy

The general rule in our house is to have Andrew in bed - preferably asleep - by 9:00PM. I say this is the 'general' rule because either Andrew or I find a way to break this rule quite often. Tonight was no exception.

Around 8:00, everyone was downstairs putting away toys. The plan was for Andrew to spend 15 minutes working on the clean-up goal, then go upstairs, brush his teeth, and get ready for bed. I went upstairs first and discovered a cool video on the computer showing the making of Jelly Beans. It was short and I knew Andrew would love it, since he was recently introduced to Starburst Jelly Beans. I came downstairs to tell him I had something fun to show him, but he would have to brush his teeth first. Then I challenged him by telling him I could get my teeth brushed first - a good challenge goes a long way with Andrew.

We both brushed teeth, then watched the video on the computer. With extreme hesitation, Andrew finally stopped resisting our command that it was time for bed. I joined him in his room and we talked about things while I tried to get him relaxed enough to sleep. Andrew was fidgety and was crawling under his sheet. I made the mistake of pretending that the sheet was a tent - something we used to do a lot when he was younger. We pretended that we were on the beach and the tide was coming in - Andrew's idea. Oh no! We had to quickly move the tent up to the top of the dune, else we would get hit by waves. The little charade went on for at least 10 minutes, then an additional 10 minutes was required to bring the energy level down to sleeping level. Oops. We were almost there when I noticed something strange with the blinds.

Every so often, I thought I saw a faint flash on the blinds. At first I thought it was a reflection from Andrew's Thomas nightlight. I walked to the computer room and looked outside, but didn't see anything unusual. I went back into Andrew's room and saw it again. Andrew saw it, too. I dared to peak outside the window, hoping NOT to find anything interesting and send Andrew's energy level back up. Unfortunately, what I found was something amazing.

In the far western sky, Mother Nature was putting on an incredible light show. Lightning was illuminating the sky and various layers of clouds with purple and orange light. Occasionally, we'd see a bolt of lightning jump across a gap in the clouds. Before long, Susan - the enforcer - came in to see what the fuss was about. Once she saw it, she too was in awe of the spectacle and dropped her guard. Andrew was sitting near the windowsill on his Thomas couch, I was leaning against it, and Susan leaned against me. We stayed this way for at least 30 minutes, enjoying the show and Andrew's ratings. He graded the glows as Small, Medium, Large, and Huge, based on things like sky coverage, brightness, duration, and if bolts of lightning were included. It was a family moment that I will not quickly forget.

Firm bed times and rules are very important in a growing child's life, but sometimes they need to be broken for the greater good.