My 13 year old epitomizes the term “heavy sleeper.” The worst part of my day has always been any time that I have to Wake him up. Homeschool definitely makes that part easier because I can try to let him wake up naturally. Not always, though, because he has been known to sleep all day. I have always assumed that part of it was behavioral. Particularly because he would often open his eyes and look at me; but then close his eyes and roll over.

But, something happened to change my opinion.

You see, he had been waiting anxiously for his new Tablet to make its delivery debut on our doorstep. Anxiously waiting is actually an understatement. He would begin and end the day by expressing his hope that his tablet would come. He moped through Sunday because he knew it wouldn’t be delivered that day. He tried to sleep late so that he would be awake less time and therefore his tablet would come faster (or feel like it, anyway). So, clearly, my kid doesn’t excel in the patience category. I was finally able to track it and we learned that it was supposed to come by the following Tuesday.

Finally, Tuesday came. I opened the door and saw a box on the porch. I opened it first because I didn’t want him to be disappointed if it wasn’t the tablet. But, it was! Yay! I went straight to his room where he was, not surprisingly, asleep. I immediately started to wake him up. At this point, I was probably almost as excited as he was. After the typical unreasonable amount of effort, he opened his eyes. I made a big production of holding up the box and waving it around. Just to be silly, I pulled down his blanket, put it on his chest, and covered him back up.

I grinned at him and left the room. I went to my room and waited for his reaction. I assumed that he would come out to gush about it. But, he didn’t. After awhile, I went to his room and saw that he was still sleeping. What?? I couldn’t believe after all the build up, he wasn’t playing with the dang tablet. Was it anticlimactic? Did he change his mind in the last couple of hours about wanting one?

An hour or two later, Antwan came out of his room and walked downstairs. I heard him open the front door but didn’t think anything of it. Then he came back up the stairs, looking completely dejected. He looks at me with sad eyes and said “My tablet didn’t come.”

Completely confused, all I could say was “What?? Are you serious??”

I asked him if he remembered me coming in his room and he said no. I told him to go back and check his room. He did and found the box on the floor because I guess he rolled over and the box kept rolling. As I sat there, marveling at the fact that my son slept through it all, he was ripping open the package and squealing in delight. Ok, not squealing, exactly, but the teenager version of squealing. The point is that he was happy.

And I have learned a valuable and a bit unbelievable lesson. This kid is truly dead to the world when he is truly asleep. In this case, it was quite hilarious. I’m sure it won’t be so funny when we have somewhere to be. But, hopefully, it will help me keep my cool the next time I am trying to drag him out of bed. Hopefully!