We’re early risers around here. Most mornings I’m up somewhere between 5:30 and 6:30, and at least one of the boys is up around the same time. I can’t remember the last time all of us weren’t up by 7:15 with the exception of Beloved, who would sleep until tomorrow if we let him.
Even so, it takes us a while to get going in the mornings. I nurse Lucas when he wakes up, put on a pot of coffee, make a pre-breakfast snack for the big boys (this is a holdover from the old days when they were wee, and they probably don’t need it anymore but we are nothing if not creatures of habit around here) and read the paper for a bit before nursing Lucas again on the other side to take off the overnight milk pressure build-up. By then it’s time to shower and do my morning ablutions, get the boys dressed and breakfasted, and get Beloved up. Lucas likes a wee nap in the morning, and usually gets held by one of the grownups while he’s doing so. Yes, he’s spoiled rotten. I know. I’m okay with that. He’ll wake up for a bottle around 9:30 or so, which takes the best part of a half-hour to drink, and then get him dressed. Three mornings a week I sneak off to the gym and leave Beloved to tend to the boys, but nobody else gets dressed and goes anywhere without a major effort. We’re ready to face the day in public by 10:00, maybe 10:30.
We live close enough to the school that I can hear the schoolbell ringing. Each morning for the last month or so of school, I’d hear the bell ring for 9:00 and suppress a little shudder. Starting in September, we move from our leisurely both-boys-in-school-afternoons-only to both boys in school mornings and Tristan in school all (gasp!) day. How the hell we’ll get all of us out the door and across the street for 9:00 am has been a puzzle I’ve been worrying for a couple of months now.
I found out today just how ugly it will be. Without even realizing the foreshadowing, I’d enrolled Tristan in an all-day arts camp and Simon in a mornings-only camp at his former nursery school. The chaos of getting everybody out the door was nothing short of insanity, but it’s now not quite 10 in the morning, Lucas is sleeping in his car seat on the bathroom floor with the exhaust fan on (his second most common napping place, after our arms – don’t judge me, it works!!!) and I have both a hot Tim’s coffee and an entire blog post at my fingertips.
This might work out after all!
The question now is what on earth will I do with myself all day with only Lucas to take care of? For at least the mornings this week, with Beloved home the parents outnumber the kids!! How did we ever find just one child so difficult to manage? The silence (aside from the hum of the exhaust fan) is blissfully deafening.
It’s all a matter of perspective, isn’t it? One child seems like a lot until you have two; two can seem overwhelming until you have three….Thankfully we’re adaptive creatures!
Um, Dani? What were you thinking committing these thoughts to virtual paper? Don’t you know that all holy hell is likely to break loose now?
Sigh.
This morning is the first morning where I only have the baby at home. The 3yo is in a full-day Montessori camp. He’s never done that, full days that is, and I had all these visions and plans of how I’m going to get stuff accomplished. Except, the baby is crawling/cruising, and into everything, and misses her brother, and wants attention, and and and, but still, here I am blogging. Because one isn’t here and the other is napping.
Ben’s camp starts at 8 am. His regular day in the fall/winter starts at 8:30. Still, that half hour makes a difference. One thing that is easy which wasn’t in the winter is that it takes very little time to get everyone dressed relatively speaking to winter time. The baby, as far as I’m concerned, can stay in her pjs for the school drop off in the summer….and I can wait to shower till after drop off.
But you managed today. And you will manage again. Perhaps without a shower (oh well) or only one instead of 3 cups of java in you (gasp!) but routine will come. Because it has to.
PS the exhaust fan still works for our 8 month old. What a great invention!
I started shuddering at your early wake up calls… 5:30 to 6:30?! Ouch. I, too, would sleep until tomorrow if I could.
But with two wee boys, I generally have to settle for about 7-7:30ish.
You’ll be shocked and amazed at how quickly your days will fill up. Don’t worry.
Don’t fret about it, embrace it! I’m pretty sure though that in a few months time you’ll be blogging ‘how did I ever think I would have too much time’
I was going to say exactly what Tara said. So ditto from me.