The ultimate backfire

A couple of weeks ago when Reed got some money from my Nana he started making a list of things he might like to buy. Among the list was an alarm clock. He never did decide on what to get, but I decided that an alarm clock might be just the thing to help give Reed some additional responsibility and make for smoother mornings before school.

The clock arrived today and when we presented it to the boys along with a list of things they needed to do in them morning before school they were ecstatic! Reed thought it was the perfect clock. I also gave them a list of things they would be responsible for in the evening and they immediately went to work checking one item off at a time.

I was pretty proud of everyone, including myself for thinking of such a great idea. However, it didn't take long for me to be a little concerned when Reed was panicking at 8:00 (the time I said was their bedtime) and they weren't asleep. "I'm supposed to be asleep!!"

He wanted me to race through the bedtime stories and even picked out a baby board book to make sure it was super short. I thought maybe he had missed the mark a little with the clock. I wasn't really bothered by their eagerness to go to sleep, until as they were laying there quietly my perfect plan started to fall apart.

"It's 8:17 Reed," says Max.

"Reeeeeeed, it's 8:19 now."

I told them they were only allowed to get out of bed if they needed to use the bathroom. Max popped out almost immediately with that "get out jail free" card and convinced Reed to come, too.

When they finally returned to their room the first thing Max said was, "Wow! It's 8:27 now Reed. This is a super fast clock."

For the past hour I've been hearing time updates nearly every minute. "This clock keeps changing, Reed!!!" (Max even ran out looking for the 'fake clock face' it came with so he could put it back on and make it stop changing.)

Now that it's almost 10:00 I think it might be time to pull the plug and make sure I can still find the receipt.

Because I take so many pictures I have a fundamental problem recording something and not including a picture. I know this picture is random and has nothing to do with what I just recorded, but I do love these boys and the relationship they've developed---even when it's what keeps them up late.