This is different. It’s not even 1 am and Ian is already asleep. Usually he’s the one who crawls out of bed and sits at the desk, and I’m pretty sure he’s awake until 3 or 4 most of the time but he fell asleep shortly after midnight. I’d be there with him except I fell asleep this afternoon and now I’m wide awake.

It’s good he fell asleep easy tonight. He’ll need the rest, as tomorrow he’s taking all three kids shopping for school clothes and supplies. They’ve already been warned about pushing for things that aren’t on the school-approved list (uniforms, that makes it mostly easy) but tonight Alex and Rachel were lobbying for cell phones and I’m thinking they’ll use the time alone with Dad to plead their cases.

We are horrible throwbacks to a pre-technological era if you take them at their word. They are the only ones in school who don’t have cell phones and the only kids no one else can text. Ian’s magic answer for all requests like that is “when you’re sixteen” but tonight Alex fired back with something we hadn’t considered…when he’s sixteen, he’ll be a senior.

At the beginning of summer he had a girlfriend, and we were more than a little surprised when we met her and discovered she was 16 years old. Ian put his foot down and told Alex he wasn’t dating anyone until he’s sixteen. Lots of drama ensued (near growling and door slamming that resulted in the loss of someone’s bedroom door), but neither one of us stopped to think that by not allowing him to date until he’s sixteen means he won’t have much of a social life until his final year in high school.

We have some reconsidering to do.