When mom's away...

Mommy just completed a 6-week women's Bible study on Monday nights.
This past Monday she stayed later than usual, and when she finally called home to say that she was on her way it was 10:18 PM and it was a 40 minute ride home. She certainly didn't expect to hear what she did when I picked up the phone. You see, I had taken advantage of the sun going down earlier these days to put the kids down to bed at an early hour - 6:45, very early considering they usually go down after 8:00. They went down without a fuss. Lauren, however, had been developing a stuffy nose and cold, likely from the nursery at church the previous day. By 10:00 PM and many visits later, to Lauren, that is, she finally broke down and wept openly.
I went to find her, hold her and pray with her. Hannah was awake, and while she got up to go potty Lauren sat crying on the bathroom counter while I put vapor rub on her. Lauren crying in my ear wasn't enough noise so little Timmy decided to join the fun and announce his awakening.
I told Hannah that she definitely needed to go to sleep because she had skipped her nap and... "Hannah, sweetie, you really need to go to sleep because you know what happens when you don't sleep enough?.... yeah! that's right... you get "crampies" in your legs.  So she obediently got in bed.
Lauren needed me so I told her she could come with me but..."Lauren, baby doll, you can come with me but as you can hear, Timmy needs me to get him and feed him, so you can sit next to me OK?" She understood and cam along.
Walking out of the room with Lauren's little hand in mind, I looked back into the girls' dimly lit room and I saw Hannah sitting up waiting for us to leave and I thought 'why not?' "Hannah.. you wanna come join us?" Certainly she did and came along.
We rescued Timmy from his crib. He had taken a really long nap. We marched downstairs and while he ate we talked. We conversed and extensively explored the concept of Lauren being sick and how it was important for her to cover her mouth and not to "bless you" (sneeze) on Timmy or Papa or Hannah. We also explained how her "sickies" were contagious and that they couldn't play with the same toys for the next few days because Lauren might give her "sickies" to Hannah. It was priceless to watch their little minds ponder, grasp, comprehend and interact with the concept at hand.
That is when Mama called and heard more than just me. We all took turns talking to her but we "of course" determined that Lauren was to be the last person to use Papa's cell phone so that she wouldn't pass her "sickies" on to someone else. She would then be responsible to wipe Papa's phone down with a wipe (they love being assigned meaningful tasks). So after we all talked to Mama I took the phone from Lauren to close and they both yelled "Nooooo!" They were genuinely worried about me and I picked it up by its antenna and said "see ya soon!" To reassure them I demonstrated how I was holding the phone by the antenna and they were relieved.
So, while we waited for Mama to get home we just stayed up and had a good time as you can see in the pictures :)