Good morning sunshine

I wake up to the best and the almost worst sounds on the planet. I’ll start with the worst, which is usually the one that comes first in our house. Almost every morning, Maggie and Roxy’s internal alarm clocks go off about 20 minutes before the real alarms start ringing in our ears. They wake and immediately go to Neal’s side of the bed, hoping that he will instantly jump up and let them outside. Of course, our goal is to ignore them in hopes that they will give in and go back to sleep, allowing us those last precious moments of sleep that we dearly need. As much as we try, that NEVER happens. What does happen is that upon realizing Neal does not plan to let them outside right at that very moment, they start whining. It is subtle at first and progresses into a loud, moaning whine that is impossible to ignore. They want us to think that if we don’t instantly let them outside, they will burst.

The next stage follows their realization that the whining is ineffective. During this stage of the morning wake-up routine, tails start a-wagging. They not only wag but whack creating a noisy tempo on the wall and on the bed boards. Back and forth their tails go between the wall and the bed, “WHACK! WHACK! WHACK! WHACK!” We inevitably spend this time desperately trying to ignore them, but it rarely works. Thus, Neal eventually rises from the bed groggy and annoyed with the beasts and lets them outside. Seconds after he gets out the door with them, my alarm goes off. It is enough to make me want to cry most mornings. We would probably be better off just getting up by their alarms, which would allow us a few extra minutes to get out the door for work. But that’s just way too logical.

The best way to wake up in the mornings is to hear Charlie cooing/singing from his crib. These are the mornings when the dogs sleep in. It’s early and I am gently awakened by a glorious “coooooooh, ahhhhhhh, gooooooo, gahhhhh” from the other room. I just lie there, listening to him sing; he usually goes on for several minutes. Finally, once I start to hear the slightest bit of frustration in his voice, I get up and go to him. I peak over his crib to see a happy, rested, smiling baby. He looks up at me as if to say, “Hey, mom! I’m so happy to see you this morning!” It’s so cute, I could just cry.