waking up on your own

Dear Em,
It was almost a year ago that you switched from a crib to a big girl bed. Ever since, we've listened to you call "Mom! Dad!" every morning as you woke. You would continue to call until we opened the door of your bedroom or called back & told you to come out of your room. I don't know why you felt you needed to do this. We never told you you had to stay in your bed until we told you you could get out. It's just what you did.

Sigh, until this morning.

This morning I woke up to the sound of you tugging at your door knob, the pitter patter of your feet going down the hall, & the toilet flushing. This was the first morning you didn't call out for us. It made my heart happy. You're growing up. I can almost picture you walking downstairs, turning the cartoons on, & pouring yourself a bowl of cereal. I can't say your daddy & I won't relish every extra moment of precious sleep. There were days as you called out to me before dawn that I wished I went by any other name than "Mom!"

But yet, I'm a little bit sad, because...well, because you're growing up. This is the end of yet another stage. I know all too soon our tradition of you climbing into our bed on Saturday & Sunday mornings & snuggling while you watch cartoons & daddy & I try to catch a few more moments of sleep will end someday too. These days just seem to go by so fast, & you seem to be growing up even faster. I want to take every moment I can to snuggle you in & just take you in as you are: Emma, age 3 & 4.5 months. Because you'll never quite be the same as you were at this moment right now.

I love you so,
Mommy

The Truth About Daylight Savings

Dear Em,
Last week we sprang forward for daylight savings time (I've actually been through 5 time changes due to travel & daylight savings in the past month...sleeping on any type of schedule has really become a challenge). I wrote something on Facebook about gaining an hour of sleep, & most people thought I was confused. I'm not confused. I know that clocks moved forward by an hour. I know everyone else "lost" an hour last weekend.

I remember daylight savings before we had you. I remember looking forward to the clocks moving back an hour in the fall & dreading the precious hour of sleep we were losing when clocks moved forward in the spring. I remember being up until 1am (or was it 2am), & smiling because we were either going to relive an hour of time or time was going to speed up by an hour. I almost never make it until 1am (or was it 2am) anymore, & daylight savings hasn't worked the same for us since there was you.

There's something I didn't really think about before I had you. It's something I think most people don't truly think about before they have kids. Which leads me to wonder if the people who created daylight savings had kids... or a clue. Young children can't tell time.

You, like most small children, are above clocks. Clocks are superfluous. To you those silly things are basically just decorations in our home. Conventions like time mean nothing to you. You're hungry when you're hungry. You're tired...well...never. You have your own internal clock. It doesn't matter what time we put you to bed, you wake up at the same time. Things like daylight savings don't concern you.

The rest of the country may enjoy an extra hour of sleep as they "fall back" in November. The rest of the country is probably deep in slumber at 5:15am the morning after. Not at our house. You don't fall back. It may be an hour earlier for everyone else, but you're awake expecting us to be functioning parents. It takes us weeks...months to transition your body to daylight savings. So when it's time to spring forward in March, I feel like we're catching up with the world again. Rather than hearing "Mom!" at 6:15 in the morning, you actually slept until the clock said 7:15am. Let me tell you, it's was amazing. I enjoyed every second of springing forward that first morning.

Did you know that Arizona doesn't recognize daylight savings? They don't have to try to fool & retrain their children's internal clocks. Doesn't it sound heavenly...& absolutely logical? I will vote for any Rhode Island politician who vows to rid our beautiful state of daylight savings. I'm serious. Who's with me? In the meantime, if someone knows how to teach a 3 year old what time is & how to sleep until 8am, I'm all ears.

I love you so,
Mommy