Morning

For the last week and a bit, emagene has been waking soon after or during the morning "farm" chores. Or rather at dawn.

This is new. We have always been a sleep until 930 or 10 family. We also go to bed around 930, so this works for us. Getting up at dawn does not. Yes, I have to let the chickens out so they have access to food, water, and their personal Favorite nesting box. But after opening the doors, refilling their bowls and a quick glance that no one is injured, I go back to bed for an hour!

I do attribute a few of these morning wakings to my forgetting to close the blinds in emagene's room the previous night. That pesky, and beautiful, morning sun, with it's shifting arc as the seasons change, now shines straight on her tiny sleeping face.

Other mornings, she arrises unsure if we are taking daddy to work or if she should wave at him through the front windows. Either way, it's a guaranteed moment with her father before he starts another 10-14 hour work day so I let it be and get on with breakfast preparations.

More often then not, as the colors fade from the sky and I'm slipping back in bed for a few more blissful moments of sleep, I hear "momma!" coming from across the hall. she'll crawl in with me for a few moments before the hunger sets in, or she'll call out, hear my reply and fall back to sleep. On the nights when she has joined us in the big bed, a reassuring snuggle typically puts her back to sleep. Lately it's been all about snuggling in the overstuffed rocking armchair, with a breakfast smoothie, watching Mickey mouse clubhouse on YouTube.

I know all things change in time. In this moment, in the absence of afternoon naps, I am thoroughly grateful when we go back to sleep for a couple of hours before we start our day of park playdates, chores, or swimming lessons.