project 52, week 22

the vast majority of my mornings begin the same way:

around 4 or 5 am, a  little person by the name of lauren makes her way up the stairs and slips into our room.  clutching her favorite memory foam pillow, she pads over in the dark to my side of the bed, plops the pillow next to my head and urgently whispers, “I HAVE TO PEE.”  she then goes into our bathroom, does her business, then calls out, “i’m done, can you help me?”  which is then my cue to stumble over with eyes pretty much still closed to assist her.  afterward, she returns to my side of the bed, slips under the covers, sighs a happy sigh, and is fast asleep.

i am usually wide awake by now and have about a 4-inch sliver to bed left to lie down on.

i finally fall asleep at just about the same time phil’s alarm clock goes off at 6 am.

it’s not easy being a light sleeper, man.

but this is us on the mornings when daddy doesn’t have to go in to work.  (the above and the following pictures are going to be yucko quality phone pics).

then, around 8 am, i hear another pair of not-as-little feet coming up the stairs.  we have very creaky wooden stairs.  and i can tell by the speed of those creaks whether or not it’s the big brother coming up alone, or if it’s him carrying up his little brother with him.  it all depends on if the little brother has woken up yet.  and they usually do wake around the same time.

so then, we look like this.

and as for the big sister?  well, she’s our glorious sleeper and 99% of the time sleeps well past all this morning action warm and snug in her own bed.  and there she stays until the rest of us come down and are sitting down to breakfast.  it’s going to be interesting to see how she’s going to deal with early school mornings in the fall.  (more on that later).

my morning crew.  not so bad waking up to these cheery faces, right?

but we most definitely need to upgrade our queen size bed to a king and pronto.  that 4-inch sliver of bed is doing very bad things to my back.  and this morning crew only keep getting bigger!

edited to add (to answer esther’s question)- allie has been part of this morning crew a time or two but i don’t know if she’s aware that it happens pretty much every morning.  but, her own little morning ritual after she wakes is to get up, come find her mama for a long good-morning hug, which she’s always sure to get.  my morning isn’t complete until i get my allie-hug.  🙂