Can you believe what my kid did now?!?!?!?!

Here's how my evening went down last night. After a LONG afternoon of family events (more to follow about that on another day), we ate a little dinner before Sean & I had to leave for church. We had a little dessert night volunteer appreciation and we knew it wouldn't be a late evening so we left Andrew in charge of Nathan & Rebekah. (For those who are concerned, he's well over legal babysitting age...we just don't usually leave him for a long time because chaos usually follows.)

We promised everyone we'd be home not too late and we'd put them to bed. When the evening concluded at about 8:35-8:40, we hastily said our goodbyes and left.

At 8:51, I call Andrew from the car to tell him to get Nathan and himself into their pajamas. I told him I'd deal with Rebekah when I got home. He pauses for a minute and says, "Uh, Mom?" (I'm having heart palpitations now.)

"Yes, Andrew?"

Andrew replies, "I already put them to bed."

Stunned silence now meets the oldest over the phone. I'm sure it was uncouth, but I was so surprised I blurted out, "You did what?!?"

He repeated that Nathan & Rebekah were in bed already. I told him to get his pajamas on, too, because we'd be home in a few minutes.

When we got home, I went to check on Rebekah--already out cold. Sean checked on Nathan who was asleep. When I asked Andrew what time he put them to bed he told me, well, it was between 8:30 and 8:45...you always say they need to be in bed by 8:30.

I'm still in shock over this whole experience. Leaves me feeling a little off-kilter. All those talks, lectures and groundings about responsibility (or lack thereof) and suddenly---without our asking---he behaves in a mature and responsible way.

Wow! What a kid! Guess my first baby is really growing up.