My 6-year-old son fell asleep this evening around 6:30. I had sent him to his room for being mean to his little brother, and when I went to check on him he was fast asleep in bed. So here is the dilemma: let him sleep and risk throwing off the rest of the night or wake him up so he can go to bed at the usual designated time?

As far as I know, he is not currently ill, although he did have a cold last week. We did also have relatives visiting from out of town last week, so he has been off his schedule with all sorts of cousin fun. So maybe he was just recovering from all that.

Whatever the case, I let him sleep for a while, and then woke him up. He relocated to the couch in the living room, and I went outside with my two other children, thinking my son was coming along behind us as soon as he put his shoes on. But he didn't make it outside.

My boy fell right back to sleep on the couch in spite of all the regular family commotion around him when we came back inside. So we gave up on waking him, and my husband carried him off to bed for the night. Now we'll have to see if he sleeps all night or wakes up at 4:00 am or what!