Analee at 2:30 AM.

Since I've gotten a newspaper route in Lexington with the Roanoke Times, my kids have been bugging me to take them with me.  I used to get up at 2:30.  With the truck getting to the drop site a bit late, I moved my alarm back ten minutes to 2:40.  It may not seem huge, but at that hour, every minute counts.  When the truck is late, I get a little more sleep at the drop site.  Once the truck gets there, it takes me roughly an hour and a half (give or take) to get my papers tossed.  On Monday, for example, I was done in an hour and twenty minutes.  Got home at about 4:30 after the drive home from Lexington, and then decide to go to sleep or get some stuff done before the kids wake up.  Analee woke that day at about 5:15.  Grumble.

Analee has been waking earlier and earlier lately, in fact.  I knew it was coming.  Thursday morning, it came.  At about 2:30, I felt someone climb into bed with me.  Then climb onto my back.  I knew it was her.  At 2:38, I rolled her off my back, and she piped up.  "I wanna go with you, Daddy, on your route."  "No, I don't think that's a good...."  My voice trailed off as I looked at my sleeping wife and 6-month-old sleeping in bed.  "Come on."  Grumbled words at 2:30 don't have the same effect.

So we went.  At first, I wanted Analee to just go to sleep in the back of the van that I stole from my wife at 2:45 AM.  We got to the drop site and waited for the truck when I realized that I didn't get the bags from my car.  Can't let people's newspapers deal with fog and dew, can I?  So when the truck finally arrived and I picked up my papers and then drove home to pick up my bags and start my route.  I was shocked that Analee was still awake.  At first, I wanted her to just stay back there and fall asleep, but I soon saw that my dreams wouldn't happen.  I deliver to a few old folks' homes, though, and one of them I knew I'd have to go in.  Couldn't leave an awake 5-year-old in the car at 3 AM, could I?  So she hopped out and we made our deliveries.

I discovered something then.  Rather, I was reminded.  Kids don't have volume control.  At 3 AM, she's singing at the top of her lungs as I sneak down the halls of an old folks' home.  "Shhh!"  That didn't work.  I never did find anything that worked.

I realized another thing, too.  She really wanted to experience the entire route.  Not just tag along, but actually deliver newspapers.  So I soon started letting her toss newspapers from her window at sidewalks.  Then I let her deliver to porches.  The culmination was a delivery of both a Wall Street Journal and a Roanoke Times to a porch protected by a high fence.  She put it through the fence (brilliant! I'd always just tossed it, waking up half of the neighborhood with the thud in the morning air.), and came back to the car smiling.

Then she broke the news. 

"I don't want to deliver any more newspapers.  A monster might get me."

Really, kid?  A monster?  You've survived 5 years on this planet, and a monster's going to choose tonight to attack?  Fine.  We're close enough to the end.  It took longer than normal (it was about 5:30 when we finished), but it was fun to hang out with my daughter.  I had to go to a store and buy one more newspaper (I think I tossed one to the wrong house somewhere in there) and a chocolate bar for my little girl (who by this time was asleep, of course), and then we went to Wal-Mart to get the list of things needed for my little girl's new kindergarten class.  (When I went to school, there was no list.  Why do people need to spend money for schooling these days?  I don't get it.)  She woke up between the store and Wal-Mart.  We got home at about 7.

She slept for a few hours that afternoon, but was in great spirits most of the day.  I think it's because I let her do more than just ride with me.  If any of my other kids want to go with me later, I might try it again.  The extra time to get the job done was worth it, and it helped my girl to feel great about herself.

Why don't I let her (or her brothers) help more often?