I woke up late today- accidentally hit dismiss instead of snooze on my alarm. I stumbled into the kitchen to make my 9 year old's lunch at 7:52. He has to be out the door to go to school at 8:10.

"Good morning!" he says, already dressed and clean. "You slept in again."

Me, trying to keep my eyes open: "Yeah I know, I'm sorry bud, but I've still got enough time."

"I already packed my snacks," he said. "Can you just make me a sandwich?"

There's his lunch kit on the counter. I suspiciously rifled through it. An orange, some snap peas in a bag, seaweed strips, some rice pudding, a Nutrigrain. "Nice job," I said.

"Yeah, I figured I'd help you out this morning," he said, smiling a little.

"You need to pack you gym strip," I slur, hastily slathering butter on bread and cutting up pieces of cheese for his sandwich.

"I already did!" He chirped back. "And my snow pants."

"Oh... that's great that you remembered. How about you put all your stuff in the living room back where it belongs?"

"I did that last night," he replied. "Can I just play on my tablet before I have to go?"

"Sure," I said, still too tired to really care about anything. I finished his sandwich and put his lunch in his backpack. Sure enough, there's his gym strip and snow pants, neatly folded.

"Oh yeah!" he says from the living room. "It's pizza day Friday, can I please have some money for pizza?"

Oh right, I'm supposed to check the kid's planner...

After I rifle some change out of my purse and sign off on the pizza form I get some coffee going and collapse on the couch. At 8:07, he goes to his room, plugs his tablet in, and gets his boots, gloves and coat on. At 8:09, he comes to give me a hug good-bye.

"I'm going to school now, Mom. See you!"

I demand a hug and tell him I love him. He's out the door by 8:10 exactly.

Just how exactly he's been instilled with these good habits is an unparalleled mystery to me.