Tuesday, October 16, 2007

My Little Alarm Clock

As I'm sure you've guessed by noting the hour at which some of these blogs are posted, I stay up late at night. This is when most of my writing gets done, both on books and for Families.com. I also like to update my food and weight loss journals on my other blog, and catch up on things that didn't get done during the day (like, everything.) It's often 2:00 before I'm in bed, and then my brain is thinking about everything I need to get done the next day. Lately, it's been around 3:00 am before I've been getting to sleep.

My two-year-old has been sleeping on the bottom tier of a bunkbed for about a month now, I guess. It was time -- his crib kept falling apart and there was no point in buying a new crib just to take it down a month later. He loves his bed, and his brother loves sleeping on top -- but there's a problem. No side rails.

At some point between 6:30 and 7:30 every morning, I'm awakened to a little face staring intently into mine. The conversation goes something like this:

Him: "Morning, Mama! Up! Up!"

Me: "Benjamin, it's still dark outside. Let's go back to sleep."

Him: "No asleep, Mama. Time a get up!" He takes my hands. "Holding hands. Jump up!"

Me: "But I'm sleeping."

Him: "Come on, Mama! Come a me!"

And he goes toddling out. I know full well that if I don't follow him, there will be catastrophe. Yesterday morning it was a bag of brown sugar all over the floor, including the carpet. Other mornings it has included pen scribbles all over my flat-screened monitor, which I still haven't cleaned off because I don't want to hurt the screen. (Any suggestions on that would be greatly appreciated.) But it's really hard to stay awake when you've only been asleep for three or four hours, so I generally fall back asleep on the couch, the melodious, soothing of Dora the Explorer or the Wonder Pets lulling me to sleep.

There are worse ways to be awakened, that's for sure. He's as cute and sweet as they get. But my husband has tonight off, so he'll be here at 6:30 in the morning and he has promised to hold the fort down and let me sleep. He's under orders not to wake me up until ten. I'm almost giddy, I'm so excited.

7 comments:

Cindy Garber Iverson said...

I'm a nightowl too as far as my creativity are concerned. And instead of being awakened by toddlers, I'm up for seminary every morning. That's why there's naps. ;) Cindy at Rosehaven Cottage

Unknown said...

Ho, sleepyhead. Hope the plan worked. You deserve every minute.

You also deserve a treat. Hop on over to my blog when your hubbie prince awakens you with a kiss, and grab a treat. Everyone else, too. They're all free!

Anna said...

My three year old is the same. If I don't get up when he does, he gets into the fridge. My husband usually forgets to lock in after he leaves in the morning. One day he came in with his hands all white "I like cake". He had gotten into the frosting and was eating it for breakfast.

My 1 year old is still in her crib. She is 20 months old, and has just figured out how to climb into her crib. Climbing out will probably be next. :(

Tristi Pinkston said...

A.Riley, at least she wants to get in!! And yes, I'm afraid your crib days are soon ended. My favorite is when they've known how to do it for some time, but I don't know they know how, but I keep finding things in weird places and come to discover that they were engaged in covert operations.

Anne, I did sleep! I got up at 10:30 and it felt wonderful. Thanks!

Cindy, I'm a staunch supporter of naps, believe me!

Jennifer @ Fruit of My Hands said...

How sweet. I have one too.

An Ordinary Mom said...

My husband gets morning duty ... thank goodness! Although, I still get up about 7:30.

For this very reason my little man is still in a crib :) !! I am evil and selfish!

Keeley said...

Tristi,

Andrew's favourite pastime used to be vigorously writing with a pen or pencil all over our flatscreen monitor. =D

I would spray some windex onto a microfiber cloth and wipe the screen with that - it cleaned it up just fine. =) If you're worried about using windex, just spray some water on a microfiber cloth and use that.

If you haven't got any microfiber cloths...perhaps just a dishcloth? Or a paper towel?

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