I have two favorite moments of every day. The first is when I walk in to Sophie's room in the morning. Pretty much every morning, she wakes up before I do and (reasonably) quietly plays in her crib until one of us goes in there. There are the occasional squeals but rarely crying. This wasn't always the case. For the first five or so months of her life, she woke us up crying EVERY SINGLE DAY. I like to think that her cheery morning behavior now is some sort of payback for those traumatic mornings. Let's keep our fingers crossed that this continues, shall we? Because mommy is not a morning person and all of that crying first thing in the morning puts mommy on the edge of a nervous breakdown. (Teeth gnashing.) So when I walk in to her room in the morning, I usually find her at one end or the other of her crib with her little lovey blanket. And, here's the moment, she smiles the biggest, widest, I'm-so-happy-to-see-you smile. That one smile makes absolutely everything worth it. The poopie diapers, the midnight feedings, chasing her around to keep her off the electrical cords and catscratch boxes (cat nip, not just for cats), the fussing and crying. That 1000-watt smile lights up my every day.
The second of my favorite moments comes at the end of the day. One thing I can say for my little Sophie Bean is that she has always been a good sleeper. A typical day has her taking at least two naps of between one and three hours a piece and she goes down for the night about 6:30 pm. I think she might actually sleep more than the cats. No complaints here. In the evening, our little routine is pretty short. In fact, it can really only marginally be called a routine, but we'll go with that for now. When she gets a little older and stops trying to eat the books I attempt to read to her and when she is dirty enough to require daily baths, I plan to incorporate those two things into the nightly routine. But for right now, its just changing her clothes and then sitting down for her evening feeding and a little cuddle. She usually gets pretty drowsy during her meal and I always caress her little face as she slowly blinks her big blue eyes. Then I carry her to her crib and whisper in her ear that her mommy loves her as I gently lay her down on the mattress. She looks up at me as her eyes droop closed and then she rolls over onto her stomach, pulls her knees up under her and plops her thumb into her mouth. That's the moment I love. When she settles herself in for the night, her lovey in her free hand and her little butt pointed skyward.
These two moments are the bookends to each day. No matter what happens in between, they make it start out bright and end on a happy note. Mmmm.
Thursday, June 5, 2008
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Mine are 15 months and play quietly in the bed all morning. I love it. We used to wake up screaming too. I do love going in to get them in the morning and see their cheery little faces and listen to them chirp out the happiest little greetings of joy. Delish!
ReplyDeleteThose kind of moments are the best, and your Bean will love to read these kinds of posts someday.
ReplyDeleteI am envious of all moms who have kids who will play in their crib. My son never would do that. It was either sleep or cry to get out . . . until it was sleep or climb and jump out (but that's a different story).
He also wasn't a good sleeper for a long, long time.
I have my fingers crossed that number two (due to arrive very soon) will be as cute as the first but a tad easier to manage!