Wake Up Call!!!!!

5:45am and our son proudly marches into our room stating, with much authority, "its wake up time!!!!" Before the sun has even considered rolling out of bed to start the day, this little monster is all giggles as he bounces his way into my double mattress which never seems big enough when he decides he's jumping in too! With elbows to my ribs and nudges in my back he announces "Mommy, I wanna go downstairs. Is not dark soon, ore watch cawtoons wit me?"

His cute, mis-pronounced string of words is enough to wake his baby sister. Her wails are just the alarm Daddy needs to rise from his deep slumber. He glances at our side table clock and groans "Not again, do these kids know how to sleep?"

Nope, not my kids. For nearly the last 3 years I have been woken up most days before rays of light even have a chance to break the early dawn. Its funny being awake before most the rest of the world. When my son was an infant, he got into the routine of waking every morning at 3am for a feeding and, of course, some play time. This ritual usually consisted of a bottle followed by 2 hours of my failed attempts to rock, pat, sing and even beg him back to sleep. My only company in those early days was the too perky voice of late night sales women on the shopping channel. Thank goodness I didn't have a credit card or I probably would have made one too many impulse buys just to have someone to talk to.

Thankfully, those days are long gone.....they have, however, been replaced by a potty trained toddler who wakes us 3-4 times a night with "Mommy! Daddy! I aft ta peeeeee!!!!" (Some false alarms, some not). Then there's my favorite 1am wake up; "More millllllkkkk, no milk? Storwee? No? Wahhhhh, but I not tired!" This is usually followed by another 20 minute list of demands and our reasons to why he really should go back to bed. Just when I think we can settle back down for the night there's a plump, rosy cheeked little bundle from the crib next to us demanding her night's ration of food. Needless to say she is not the most patient member of our family and her urgent wails to be fed wake up the whirlwind in the room next door. Another half hour of negotiations....

5:45am.....its still dark.....have we slept at all? It doesn't feel like it but as I look at our little boy and baby girl ready to go with bright eyes and big smiles I realize, who needs the sun? They bring all the light to my life that I could ever need.