Bot's Morning Authority

So, we had an cute scene this morning. First, it helps to know that in the First To Rise category there is fierce competition among the younger three brothers, Garrett, Bot, and Baby (AKA Alex, AKA Monster). Cory's wake time is 6:15, with a subsequent 7-minute snooze for her and her dad, so Alex has taken to waking to nurse at 6 and then, instead of falling back to sleep, climbing all over our bed snuggling adorably and violently (his skull has split my lip twice) into his parents. Meanwhile, Bot and G would claim that they wake before him but remain occasionally upstairs until they hear stirring down below, at which poinnt they kalumph down to help Cory occupy the one bathroom and compete for a spot next to the space heater once they're all done making their urgent toilet claims. Sometimes they don't wait that long, and kalumph down before Cory ever stirs, at which point we give up trying to pretend we're gaining anything staying in bed with Ballistic Baby and get up before the 6:22 alarm. (Actually, these days usually Jake gets up with them, which means I shall avoid saying very much that is critical of him for the time being.)
Since Jake has been getting up with them, he thinks that G may be getting up before he's really ready, and that maybe Bot is waking him prematurely. I wasn't so sure about this, but wasn't about to argue from the ignorance my extra 20 minutes of sleep gives me. I have, however, been amused by Bot's authoritative modeling of G's therapist's prompting, which we also use, of course. "Do you want to play? Say, 'Yes, I want to play.' " In fact, not only does Bot try to prompt G to answer his questions, he uses it to get what he wants--"Can I have that train, Garrett? Garrett, say 'Yes, here is the train, Bot!' " IN fact, not only does he use this with G, but with Mom as well. If I'm distracted, he has been known to walk up and say, "Mom, can I have yogurt? Mommy, say 'Yes!' Say, 'YES!' to me!"
Well, today Alex slept in, helped along by the fact that he was awake all day yesterday from 11am on, and then fell asleep briefly on the way to a birthday celebration for Cory's now-5-yr-old fiance at the Rainforest Cafe and was awake all through dinner. Thanks to 7:15 reservations and the untimely death of the relevant family's dog which delayed them and the proceedings while four other family units and their gazillion kids 12 and under made their presence very known to the other patrons at the restaraunt, dinner lasted till almost 10pm, during which time Alex was awake and stimulated by lights, fish tanks, and dancing gorillas, so he actually slept all night. I woke at 5am to assist Bot in the bathroom (he can take care of his business on his own, but has been known to then fall back asleep on the bathroom floor with his pajama pants still down around his ankles, so if I'm awake enough to hear him I might as well get up to get him back to his bed), and then all was quiet until I thought I heard something around 6:30.
I got up, listened to the monitor and heard nothing in their room, walked into the hallway to give a listen, heard nothing, went to the bathroom, and on my way back to bed heard something upstairs. It was Bot, upstairs where the trains were out on the floor.
"Garrett! Garrett! Say, "What?" Garrett! Answer me--say 'What?' " He must have gotten a quiet answer I couldn't hear, because as I started up the stairs I heard him continue, "Do you want to play trains with me? Garrett, say 'Yes, I want to play trains." Say 'Yes, I want to play trains.' " His voice was sounding urgent.
With good reason. I came to the top of the stairs to find Bot prancing by the trains, holding the front of his pants, doing the I-need-to-go dance to the point that he couldn't even squat down to move the trains for more than a second.
Garrett, on the other hand, was on the futon next to the trains, curled up in the quilt, burying his head and vainly trying to sleep and answer Bot at the same time. There is no doubt he was out of his bed under some duress, unable to resist Bot's commanding tone but not willing to give up on the idea of sleep, either.
So there they were, "playing trains" with one child hopping urgently from foot to foot and the other trying to bury himself under a blanket. There is no doubt that being "up" was Bot's doing today.