Most people who have young children, who don't happen to be the unfortunate folks (my opinion) who happen to start their day at 6 a.m., come to celebrate the day when their little darling can start to begin their day on their own and perhaps get their morning bowl of cereal or a piece of fruit from the family fruit bowl, before mommy or daddy comes sauntering in shortly thereafter. It's a nice benefit I must say. I've written several times before about the plethora of potential disasters associated with this 'blessing', and although they are still very alive and well, we still happily take the potential risk along with the unquestionable benefits associated with this family gamble. It would seem that it must be easy enough for a parent to wake up at the same time as their little Pre-Ker, but when you combine the reality that this is the same child that they get up with in the middle of the night when they've had a bad dream (such as last night) and are reticent to let their parent leave for a 1/2 hour afterwards until they are fast asleep (and this happened to take place twice for me last night), then it becomes a much more understandable reality. Fortunately, the only thing that our child has beaten her drum for in those early morning hours of exploration is the hunt for pure, unadulterated white sugar confections. Namely, anything that is artificially sweet, meaning Not Naturally sweet. What she found in her quest while rummaging through the cabinets today happened to be cake sprinkles and honey. She also found some parmesan cheese (grated) to eat out of the shaker. She also found, and then threw away, some biscuit mix that must've looked to her like grated cheese. That's just as well because we no longer eat that stuff anyway. Basically she was on the hunt for sugar, which in it's refined form we have found it best not to feed her if we want her to be a happy, content little girl. We have given her the other before, the result of which is not a pleasant picture. Enough said. When these little solo culinary adventures take place we don't get mad at her because frankly, we would have (and likely did) do the same kind of thing if allowed. We show some mild dissapointment at the most and just silence in our cleaning in the least. We simply dust off, clean off, wipe up, sweep, and spot mop whatever needs it. Generally, the couch has taken most of the abuse. .....Poor old couch. We might be happy that our little girl, at 4 1/2 has proven herself able to start herself on a parentally-sanctioned 'breakfast of champions' while her mom and I are still rubbing the 'sleep' out of our eyes, but it comes with a price. That price is that there is a possibility that on certain days she just might choose to color outside of the lines and go-a-frolicking through the kitchen wreaking havoc and destruction in her little wake. Oh well, I guess we're just okay to take some tart along with our sweet. Besides, after this week she starts Pre-K, which means that we will now be yet, another one of those families that rises promptly at 6 a.m. everyday, scary dream or not.