In order to start the day without chaos, I wake up early enough to get the children’s breakfast and lunch made. It is so quiet. So unbelievably quiet. If I could just fit in a few minutes of time to myself, before making the meals. Next thing I know it is 7:00am and the tornado is about to hit. QUICK…wake up the kids, get them dressed, find the socks, get them fed. Why did I stubbornly use that time for myself? Tomorrow I will wake up at 5:00am, an hour earlier. Wade sleepily arises absorbed in his own quiet fog.  I am very aware that although Wade’s body is moving he is not necessarily awake yet, mentally. I very patiently wait for him to drink his pot of coffee before I begin a conversation, otherwise things could get majorly misconstrued. He accuses me of being to “on” in the mornings. If I start a sentence with the word, So…, he gives me a distressed look as if I have done him an injustice. Can’t I see that he is not ready for that yet?

I visit each room to wake up the boys and Wade. Singing, “wake up, wake up, everybody wake up” or “Morning has Broken”, I burst into Brevitt’s room and open the shades to let the sun shine in. Yesterday, his Ugly Doll got placed in his face and rapped the wake up song ; “yo, yo! Wake up your lazy head it’s time to get out of your way to comfortable bed”. He awoke with a smile, his hair sticking out in every which way. He emerged from the bathroom dripping wet declaring that he had taken care of that problem. He had dunked his entire head under the faucet.

Axel is handled much more delicately. If I don’t wake him slowly with lots of kisses and low light than he screams and demands me out of his room. This is the Axel I try to stay clear of at all costs.

Sometimes I have my assistants. Whomever wakes up first has the assignment of gently waking the other sleepers. When Tucker crawls into Brevitt’s bed and sings the wake up song to him, Brevitt opens his eyes and tackles him for a good ½ hour. This is what having children is all about. The interaction and love that occurs between them is so very precious. I nurture that love with all my might and try to teach them how to respect and admire each other without the jealousy.

I am always in awe of how boys wake up with abounding energy and carry it with them until the moment sleep descends upon them. Even in his sleep, Brevitt continues his fidgeting. Kicking and sleeping horizontally across the bed prohibits him from being able to sleep with us. On those occasions when he does crawl into our bed, I love to feel his warm nine year old body snuggling up to us. Inevitably, I am abruptly awoken either by his foot smooshed against my face or by his calling out sports plays in his dreams.

The boys love it when Wade is still asleep. This is payback time for all the mornings he has insensitively yanked the blankets off of them and honked the bike horn in their ears to get them out of bed. I hand them the bike horn and in they march to noisily wake him up. What could be better than receiving the green light to make noise first thing in the morning.