Valentine's sugar rush

Last night K woke us up at 2 a.m. AGAIN for no good reason. I can never get back to bed when he does that. This time I gave up and got out of bed around 3:30. I did some work and fell asleep on the couch later, around 5 a.m.

I woke up to K handing me a Valentine's Day card. He had written his name in it, all by himself! (With lots of encouragement and possibly bribery from Daddy, I'm sure.)

I gave him a hug and said, "I made a card for you, and I got you some little Valentine's presents, but you have to find them." Then I looked at the clock and noticed it was after 7 a.m. K must have been up for a while before he came downstairs. Usually he comes straight to our room at our permitted wakeup time of 6 a.m. and demands that one of us play with him. "Wait, did you already find them?"

"Well," he said, "I found some things. I found a wind-up heart with feet, and a picture of a tiger."

"That's right," I said. "And there was a heart-shaped card and a little box. Didn't you see those?"

"Wellll... I found a box of cookies. But I wasn't sure they were for me."

"Yes, there was a little box of candy for you. I wrote your name on it."

"Oh! For me? Thank you, Mommy! I wasn't sure they were for me, so I hid them under my blanket."

"You weren't sure they were for you... so why did you hide them under your blanket?"

"Wellll.... I ate some. In bed. They had a sour taste so I drank some water and the sour taste went away." (They were SweeTarts.)

"You weren't sure they were for you, but you ate some and hid the rest in your bed. And I guess you didn't like the taste."

"No! I love them!" And off he went to retrieve his former contraband.

JW came downstairs a minute later and said, "You let me sleep in."

"I was napping on the couch," I replied. "K didn't wake you up?"

"No," he said. "When I woke up he was just sitting in bed with the lights on, drinking some water. I was surprised because it was past 7."

I should probably be mad about the candy-hiding and eating in bed, but as a fellow sugar fiend I find it hard to blame the kid. I just have to resist the temptation to start leaving candy where he can find it on weekend nights so we can get extra sleep in the morning.