Early Birds

Don't they realize there's no worm to be had? Here in good ole S'ville there's no prize for getting up early. But Erin and Jeff seem to have decided that they are going to become Early Birds. For the past several weeks they've been waking up at the crack of dawn (at least it feels that way to me). They've been getting up between 6 and 6:30. Going down to daddy, who's desperately trying to get out of the house for work, and demanding breakfast at 6:30. If he has a few seconds he'll open a couple of cereal bars or nuke 2 bowls of oatmeal, but he doesn't always have the time.

I'm not sure which one of the two started this trend. I think it's Jeffrey. Generally I hear him moving around first. He'll go into Erin's room to play and inevitable wake her up. This spring we'd been having issues with Jeffrey waking up in the middle of the night and coming into our room. So I started explaining to him that he can't get out of bed until the sun is up. Well, the sun is getting up earlier and earlier. Before I know it, Jeffrey's going to be waking up at 5.

I - not being a morning person try to milk as much time from them as possible. If I can hear them playing in their rooms I'll doze for another hour or so. Sometimes I'll just listen to them playing. It seems that these morning play-dates are something special though. There's rarely any arguing. I hear a lot about taking turns, sharing, and playing together. Sometimes Erin will "read" Jeffrey stories. And this morning I even heard her ask him to read to her on the potty...which he did with great pleasure. Generally by the time I'm up and moving, their rooms are disasters - toys, dolls, blocks, books, dress-up clothes are everywhere. One toy box is generally empty because it's a great place to hide for hide & seek. But their imaginations are running wild and the special sibling bond is strengthening.

So while I'm not at all a fan of this new trend in waking hours. The time they are spending playing together makes it worthwhile. So while the schedule is morphing to include earlier nap for a while, I think we can manage it. I guess that's what brothers and sisters are for. Maybe there is a worm after all.