More times than not, when I peek in on my girls before heading to bed, I find them sleeping together. 

Sometimes this means they are both down on the bottom bunk.

Sometimes, it means they are side by side in their drawers (truthfully I find them like this almost as often as I find them in the bottom bunk). 

Sometimes they are both on the floor.  (haven’t found them like that in the last 2 weeks)

And once, last week, I even found them side by side in the same drawer. 

As I peek in on them snuggled up together, it gives me hope that as they grow, they’ll share secrets, slumber parties, and hopefully a life long friendship, side by side….

Every now and then, when I peek in on my oldest daughter before going to sleep, I’ll see something which instantly takes me back to her infancy.

And even though she’ll be 6 in a few short weeks, I see her as this sweet little 8 month old in her crib, sleeping folded in half. 

I’ll remember how she used to sleep like this every.single night… and suddenly all these pictures of her sleeping like this pass through my mind like a slide show. 

Pack-n-play, hospital hooked up to IVs, crib, toddler bed, bottom bunk, top bunk… she’s done it ever where.  It’s her classic sleeping position.  And it makes me smile every.single.time.  Sweet dreams my little girl!

Time and time again our fourth child has blown us away with his easy going, flexible, happy-go-lucky approach to life.  It has made the transition to a family of 6, for this family on-the-go, SO MUCH easier—a fact I am truly, truly grateful for.

This weekend, he really went above and beyond our expectations though.

Not only did he fall asleep in the tent both nights, while the rest of us were out at the camp fire, but he even napped in the tent Saturday morning.  And as if that wasn’t wonderful enough… today we put his pack and play up behind the tent, on the off chance that he’d fall asleep and Scott could tear down the tent and pack up our gear while the rest of us went swimming… fat chance of that actually working we thought, but we figured it was worth a try…

He laid down, outside, in the daylight, and took a 2 hr nap while Scott tore down the tent and packed up the van. 

He truly spoils us!

There are all kinds of people in the world.  Some morning people, some night owls.  I truly think your propensity towards one or the other is an inborn part of your personality.  True, you can work on becoming more of a morning person (and society pretty much dictates this to some degree), ones natural inclination, I think,  is innate.

For a glimpse of this, one must simply observe my two daughters.

Both raised in the same household, by the same parents.  Both even sleep in the same room and go to bed at the same time.

Both, however, do note wake up the same way. 

Take this morning as a very typical example.

My three year old woke first and appeared in the dining room with a smile on her face.  She instantly asked for Cheerios and chocolate milk (as she does every morning) and as I got them for her she began chattering to me about the birds she heard singing out of her window. 

While I set about cleaning the kitchen and packing Scott’s lunch she eagerly began coloring a picture in her coloring book.  She does not need any time to wake up or adjust.  She wakes up, “On” and ready to seize the day.

Thirty minutes later her sister appeared in the dining room.  Her eyes are barely open, a literal snarl on her face, and while she is standing in our dining room, she is by no means awake yet.  When she wakes up, she doesn’t want to talk, she merely wants to crawl in Mom or Dad’s lap and sit. 

It’s a wonderful time for snuggling if you seize the opportunity.

About 10 or 15 minutes after she appeared in our dining room she utters her first word, “banana”. 

I can tell she is going to be my coffee drinker.

After eating her banana and sitting on Daddy’s lap for a good 15 minutes, she is ready to climb down and face the world.

While I have known she is not a morning person for awhile now, I have not figured out the best way to get her up and dressed on the mornings we need to get out the door by 8 am. 

In my ignorance, I have let her sleep as long as possible with the hope that she will wake on her own and thus wake in a better mood.  Only recently, have I realized the folly in this approach.  Even if she wakes on her own, she still needs at least 15 minutes before she can start thinking about moving along.  If I let her sleep until 7:45 or worse yet, if I WAKE her at 7:45, it is only going to be a battle of epic proportions to get her dressed and out the door in 15 minutes.   I know b/c I tried this for weeks on end and it was not a pleasant start to the day.  Recently, we learned that if you wake her up earlier, give her time to sit and snuggle, eat and THEN prompt her to get dressed and ready, she is much more amicable. 

Hmm…. is it actually better for a non morning person to wake up earlier rather than later?

This is interesting.

This week I tried the same approach on myself.  I would attest that Scott nor I are morning people.  And as such, our most productive time of day seems to be late at night.  Mornings we like to sleep in as late as possible than race around the house to get everyone out the door.  We often run late in the mornings.  

Yesterday my youngest woke at 5:30.

A.M. 

I decided to go ahead and feed him so that he would be fed and set until after we got home from dropping his brother off at the tutorial. 

I then decided that since we had no bread in the house for breakfast or lunch, that perhaps I should just stay up and make some.  Thank you Sarah, for your quick beer bead recipe, which doesn’t need time to rise.   With the bread in the oven, I decide to go ahead and work on my homework for Bible study, which I was dreadfully behind on.   Then, it was 7 am and I hopped in the shower. 

I have tried setting my alarm and rising early in the past.  I typically hit snooze and roll over till the last minute possible.  I think, much like my 5 yr old, I need time to wake up.  I can not wake up and hop in the shower.  I need to come out, sit on the couch, read a little facebook, grab a cup of coffee, sit on the couch and do my quiet time, AND THEN shower and get ready to start the day. 

I don’t know how long I can keep this up.  Old habits die hard and I am not one to rise early and meet the sun.  BUT, I will say that the last two mornings I have greatly enjoyed the time of quiet to prepare the kitchen, the house, and my heart, for the day ahead.   I like starting the day feeling like I am some what ahead instead of racing around feeling rushed and guilty and very much like that mom. (Ya know the one with all the kids who is never on time and didn’t even shower or put together a somewhat respectable outfit).

Perhaps my switch to the dark side this fall was a preparation for such a time as this…

My lil guy isn’t a newborn anymore.  I’ve known it for awhile.. he’s eating solids, vocalizing, and working on crawling.  But, recently, I also realized his days of simply sleeping in my arms are fleeting.  He’s working himself into a rhythm… sleeping through the night… taking 2 solid naps a day…The days of just holding my tiny, sleeping newborn in my arms are over. 

So on those random Sunday afternoons when he falls asleep in my arms, I am going to stay put and savor the moment.  I’m not going to lay him down, no so much out of fear of waking him, but out of fear of missing the all too fleeting moment. 

“Dusting and scrubbing can wait ’till tomorrow
For babies grow fast we learn to our sorrow.
So quiet down cobwebs and dust go to sleep
I’m rocking my baby and babies don’t keep.”

-Author Unknown

I found my 3 yr old like this during nap time today… it seems baby doll has been displaced from her bed. 

It reminded me of a picture I snapped a few weeks ago of both on my girls as we found them when we peeked in on them before going to bed.

YES… they are both sleeping INSIDE of their drawers!

And since I am sharing sleeping pics, why not share a few of my lil man snoozing as well?

What is it about a sleeping baby that just makes your heart swoon?

Math has never been my strong suit (except in 3rd grade, I did awesome with the multiplication tables and was the class champ at around the world, but that was b/c all I had to do was memorize facts and not understand the process)

Anyway, as I was saying… math has never been my gifting… and math at 3 am is certainly not my gifting.  So, I calculated the hours again.

Could it really be true?

7 hrs

Yup, I’ve done the math multiple times.

I fed my little guy at 8:15pm and I went to bed at around 10pm.  He didn’t cry to be fed until a little after 3am.   8-12 is 4 hrs and 12-3 is 3 hrs…add them together and you get …

7 hrs

Now I can’t yet bank on this happening every night, but I’ve got a feeling that things are going to get a bit easier around here.

I think I’ve mentioned before that my oldest three all share a room.  This week the kids have started taking turns sleeping with the baby. 

Sunday night the boys got to sleep together.  My oldest was so excited about sharing a room with his little brother.  I couldn’t help but snap a picture as I peeked in on them before going to bed.

When I went to look in on the girls I found them both cuddled up together on the floor… it appears they decided to have a sleep over of their own!

The next night my oldest daughter wanted to sleep with the baby.  As she was getting ready for bed she told me to make sure when I put him to sleep that I put his pacifier where she could reach in the crib so that she could help him if he woke up.  She told me she’d take care of him and I wouldn’t have to get up.  One of the times when I went in to feed him, I found her by his crib giving him his pacifier and talking sweetly to him.  In the morning I found she had moved off of the bed and onto the floor so she could be closer to him. I wonder how long it’ll be before all four of them are sleeping in the same room?!

My daughter sleeps with so many animals, pillows, dolls, and blankets in her bed, that sometimes when I go in to kiss her before I go to bed, I can’t find her. 

One night I thought I saw her and then realized I almost kissed her cabbage patch doll. 

Can you find her in the pile?  It reminds me of the old Where’s Waldo books.

Here’s a closer look… there she is!

Guess not much has changed from this picture taken a year and a half ago!