One Wisconsin 4-year-old woke up on the wrong side of the bed Christmas morning.
Every year on Dec. 25, Archer’s mom, Rachel Gaetz, sits downstairs to record her four kids’ reactions to the presents under the tree.
“We don’t miss the reaction after we’ve put in the work and everything,” Gaetz tells TODAY.com.
But in 2023, her youngest son, who had just turned 4 in December, wasn’t thrilled about the 7 a.m. start to his day.
In a video Gaetz shared to Instagram, Archer stomps into his family’s living room with an exasperated expression. He completely bypasses the gifts under the tree and heads straight for the couch, where he falls headfirst onto a cushion and kicks his feet in the air.
“Not a morning person… Not even a Christmas morning person,” Gaetz wrote over the video.
Gaetz, a photographer in Hudson, Wisconsin, says Archer is “a little unpredictable.”
“He doesn’t really hide or fake his feelings,” Gaetz says. “He can be so joyful and happy and funny… and then he can also be very expressive when he is displeased.”
Rachel Gaetz’ youngest, Archer, was 4 when she filmed his hilarious reaction to an early Christmas morning.
On Christmas morning, Gaetz’ kids were anxiously waiting upstairs to open presents — except for Archer. So one of his siblings proceeded to wake him up.
“That’s when you hear him stomping down the stairs,” she says.
Gaetz was downstairs when Archer was woken up, so “what you see in the video is exactly what I saw.”
“I think that’s the funny part about kids, they’re so un-staged and unscripted. Like, I couldn’t have imagined this type of thing,” she says.
Archer with his siblings.
In the comment section of the post, which has nearly two million likes and more than 30 million views, adults felt seen by Archer.
“I feel that deep in my bones,” one person said.
“this child is my spirit animal,” another wrote.
“He acts as if he’s going to work,” a third comment said.
One commenter suggested Gaetz dress Archer as the Grinch in the future, adding “that walk is perfect.”
Gaetz has her own theory about why it went viral.
“I think it resonates because it encapsulates how we all feel at the end of 2023. I think he just kind of summed it up in his stomp and his collapse,” she says.
Despite Archer’s initial exhaustion, Gaetz says he perked up “less than five minutes” after she took the video. His attention quickly shifted to his new Paw Patrol toys.
“He changed his tune pretty quickly I would say,” she says. “I love it because we’re always going to remember this.”
This article was originally published on TODAY.com