Accept no substitutions

This morning Hero woke us up at 4am.  Not entirely out of the ordinary for him.  Usually he wakes Hubs up around 5am in an effort to get started early on his morning routine.  Which includes:  playing indoor ball with Hubs for several rounds, standing by the door to go out but then not going out the first two times Hubs opens the door - instead just sniffing the air and surveying the yard, eating breakfast, going outside for real, and then checking on me upstairs in bed to make sure that I get up, too.
 
When he woke us up at 4am, I was famished so I couldn't fall back asleep. Trying to be altruistic, I decided I could do the morning routine with him and let Hubs sleep in.  I headed downstairs and Hero slowly followed.  Then he stopped, halfway down in the middle of the landing, and looked at me.  I continued on, ready to begin the 'Where's your ball?  Find your ball!' routine.  But instead of hearing Hero thunder the rest of the way down the stairs behind me, I heard him make mad tracks back up the stairs.  He then jumped on the bed in a frenzy, licking Hubs in the face and pawing at him, desperate to wake him up.  Finally he just sat down on top of his head.
 
I've noticed this about Hero before:  the boy likes his routine.  He does not like change.  Not one bit.  It wasn't that he'd been whining because he wanted someone to get up with him this morning, it was that he'd been whining because he wanted Hubs - and only Hubs - to get up.
 
I admire his inflexibility and OCD-like devoutness to "how we do things around here."

 

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