Morning Bells are Ringing

My alarm sounded at 5AM yesterday and Bryan and I pulled ourselves out of bed. He had an early meeting he needed to get to and I wanted to exercise before the kids got up. I finished my two miles on the rowing machine just as he was headed out. That's when I heard Peter's voice in the hall. He stumbled into our room, saying he'd had a bad dream.

While I listened to Peter recount his nightmare, my phone rang. Do you know who calls at 5:46 in the morning? The school, announcing a two-hour-delay to the start of school due to freezing rain. I had momentary dreams of going back to sleep for a few hours, then Phoebe walked in. Her room is over the garage and she woke when it opened.

So, now I had two children awake. I snuggled with both of them, hoping that they would drift off to sleep. I'll give you a few minutes to stop laughing, since we all know that of course my children wouldn't go back to sleep. Cooper was up by 6:15. None of these kids wake up willingly that early on their own. On days when school starts at the normal time they fuss and fight and want more sleep.

Maybe it really comes down to a question of priorities. Given two extra hours at home, my priority is sleep. But the kids? Their priorities are reading (Cooper), playing (Phoebe), and watching a movie (Peter). When Sophie woke up an hour later, she participated in all three activities. And guess what? I let myself snooze while the kids took care of themselves. I almost never do that. It was kind of awesome. And thanks to the exercise and extra sleep, I felt much more human.

Two-hour-delays for the win!