Do your kids send you texts in the middle of the night?

1:39 am
Roll over because I hear my phone vibrating.
There is a text message from my son.
It says,
"Do you know how old the house is?"
I reply with as accurate an answer as one can give while in a fog. I ask why he wants to know. He replies that they (his roommates and he) were just having a discussion about it. I reply with a correction to my answer now that I've had a few moments to process. Then I ask, "Are the guys also texting their mothers at 1:45 am?" I didn't receive a response.

LOL.

I know that some mothers would respond that they would be so angry to be awakened from sleep for something so trivial. Me? I say, "I love this kid!! Spontaneous!"

Now...in Jordan's defence....he had just spoken to me at 1:00 am, only 40 minutes earlier about another matter, so I'm sure he assumed I was still wide awake. After the text I was!...and lay awake another half hour blogging in my head about it! I found it rather amusing and was still laughing about it later in the day.

Perhaps it's my fault, but I've always stressed to my kids that they can disturb me at any time of the day or night if they need me. I cherish the "Mom? Are you still awake?" moments to talk out the stuff they are thinking through, needing some advice, or just a listening ear. I didn't feel like I had that with my parents and just don't want that repeated with my own kids.

Those late night talks just might be more frequent in the near future.

Back in February I wrote about the empty nest as my son was leaving home. This weekend, through circumstances, he has to return home for a bit until the job situation is resolved. I am thankful that it is not a long term plan for him to stay here - not because I don't want him here - but I want him to mature and learn life lessons on his own, and he recognizes that he needs that.

Funny, living around several large trees, I've been following the lives of baby birds and their attachments to their parents. It's one thing to leave the nest, but the babies still make their presence known and need help for quite a while after they venture out of their home. In the case of cardinal youngsters, I've been hearing their cheeping for weeks as their parents spend all of their time providing food and guarding them from all dangers.

So our nest will again be a little crowded, a little more costly, and a lot more messy. But it's a short window of time in our lives and I will just cherish the chats and the texts - no matter the hour.

Oh, and in case you're dying to know ....the house is 48 years old.