The Perfect Start

I am not a morning person. I feel groggy and often achy when I arise. On some unlucky mornings, I arise with one of my lovely tension headaches. I don't have much to say first off. It's not a great time to ask me questions. I like it very quiet and preferably still. Interesting that I married a morning person who thrives on getting up and going.

Motherhood has made mornings more trying. My children are all early risers like their dad. They don't use alarm clocks. They get up by 6:30 a.m. on weekdays and 5:30 a.m. on weekends (need an extra hour of video games & cartoons). When we fall back for daylight savings, they are up at 4:30 a.m. until their bodies adjust. I am usually quite patient with my nursing babies because they quiet as soon as they get their milk. They make those sweet gulping sounds and they feel so warm cuddled across my chest. But many mornings I'm awakened by screaming, arguing, crying, or whining from the older kids. I don't like it a bit.

So this morning when I realized that Jessica had climbed into my bed and was curled up against my back with her arm draped around me, I thought "what a way to start the day." She usually bounds into my room and in a non-soft voice says, "Mom, will you turn on Max & Ruby" (actually she just switched to Little Bear). The So Sweet in JeSSica was back.

We continued our morning together by assembling her Princess Purse Party bags. So much of the fun is the anticipation of an event. Her birthday and party are next Tuesday. Next we did a trial run of the princess craft - gluing jewels to door hangers. I made one too & I sat with her the whole time. Later we went for a neighborhood walk and went closer to her pace (usually I want to walk faster or have her ride in the stroller so I can get some exercise).

Later that afternoon I bought each child his own roll of Hubba Bubba Bubble Tape as a bribe- I mean incentive- for letting me take pictures of them. I've been wanting to do this since I saw Meegan Littlefield's blog and her other creative balloon posts. What an inspiration!!!! We set out to do balloon photos. There will be more to come, but here's a peek.