Sleep: the key to parenthood
Sleep.
When you have kids sleep is everything. As in you don’t get any and you’re basically OK with that as long as they do.
After I put the The Fugitive (my new nickname for the fingernail painting middle child) back in bed for the umteenth time, I hugged a pillow, listened to the dogs dream and after checking on the 3 of them one more time, two more times, I found that I still had one ear open listening for them. When I finally drifted into an uneasy rest, it was only to wake with a start a few minutes later to check and then recheck my phone to ensure that the alarm was set. I beat the 5:45 am alarm, a full hour before it went off. The dogs barely stirred as I made my way downstairs to negotiate the coffee pot.
Waking the kids up was an unexpected joy. As though sprinkled with some kind of pixie dust, each awoke happy and… present. I don’t know any other way to explain it but it’s like when they woke up this morning, it was their first day on the planet. Any real or imagined indignity suffered previously was erased; they were brand new somehow. I set about the task of putting breakfast together and listened to their giggles and chatter as they dressed.
They are at school now on early dismissal and we have plans to see UP this afternoon and I think I’m more excited about that than they are.
The dogs are napping and I wonder if I should too…
Cute, cute, cute and oh-so-true about the pixie dust!
i loved the fresh look on my young children’s faces in the mornings. thanks for reminding me of that.
Mine is always so sunny in the morning, it’s wonderful… She’s a bit of a challenge at night, but is well open to persuasion. (parent-ese for psychological torture…) MUHAHAHAHAHA!!!! And once she’s down, she’ll generally sleep through storms, the odd Camaro-doing-a-standing-burnout-down-the-street, and yes, even a rousing game of Wizard Chess.