Early Riser

There must be something in the blond chromosome in this family that perpetuates a desire to rise with the sun.  Alexander has now surpassed Amabelle as the first person to rise in the DiStefano home.  He's like clock work... a little 5:45 alarm clock, so reliable that I have stopped setting my alarm.  He's better anyway, I've checked and there's no snooze button.

Since Alex has been escaping his crib we would find his room in various states of disaster each morning... lamps broken, clothes strewn all about, toys everywhere... he even broke two of the drawers on the dresser.  Before the destruction it was relatively easy to ignore the little man's wake times... we just tried to abide by the old school sleep philosophy of "this is bed time" and "this is wake time".   Basically you put your kiddos to bed at the same time each night, and they wait for you to get them at the same reliable time each morning.  It worked for Emma - why didn't it work for anyone else?   Clearly the Ax-Man missed the memo on this one.  When we entered his room one morning (at the assigned 7:00) and found blood on the curtains and closet door and glass shards from the lamp all over the floor we thought that perhaps this particular parenting plan wasn't in the best interest for the health of our youngest child.

And so we cracked his door.... which means that as soon as he's up he bee-lines for the opening in his cell and thunders down the hallway, slams open our cracked door and announces himself:  DA-deeeeeee!   And here is where things get sticky... because Tony and I didn't all of a sudden turn into people who crave less then 8 hours of sleep a night and we didn't start to go to bed earlier to compensate for the morning Crazy Train... So we try to persuade him to cuddle with us.  Just for a bit... like 10 minutes to let us ease into the day, please Alex for the love of warm blankets, just 10 more minutes...

It works for Amabelle, why doesn't it work for anyone else?

Please cuddle with daddy exhibit A:

Please PLEASE cuddle with daddy exhibit B:

Ah, the things we do for our children... Like wake up when they do so that they're safe... and do really hard stuff, like drag yourself all the way downstairs and get them milk... and change their diapers.  Blergh.  I hate it.  (hehehe)

Now don't tell Alex, because I don't want him thinking this was all his idea or anything, but as a result of this morning madness, we are like ridiculously prepared.  We're the super family of the future... I'm downstairs getting breakfast on the table before the rest of the kids are even awake... Tony has the boys diapered and dressed by 6:30 and I have the girls dressed and tressed by 6:45... Breakfast is cleaned up by 7:30 and the second round of Sesame Street isn't even on yet!  Yes, Yes, I know this sounds incredibly lame to all the parents and kids of the world who have to be at daycare by 6 am... and to all of you, not for the first time I tip my hat while mumbling "I don't know how in the world you do that"... I then shudder and break into a cold sweat and start rocking in the corner just at the thought.  For us, 5:45 is super-d-duper early and it is definitely taking some getting used to.  But getting used to it we are {woah!  nice Yoda voice there!}  Unfortunately, the wake time has led to one other problem... what to do with ourselves between 7:30 and 8:30 each day.