Our Early Bird

Our son has been an early riser from the minute he was born. He even woke me at 5:30am with contractions and made his debut before 8. Mornings are his thang. Doesn’t matter if he goes to bed at 7 or 10 at night, he will rise with the sun (which is odd, considering he has blackout curtains and his room looks like midnight no matter what time of day it is;). I’m not gonna lie, I don’t enjoy starting my day before 6am, but I had a realization the other day when we were having breakfast (ok, he was having breakfast, I was getting the coffee going as fast as I could). These mornings with him…they’re not gonna last forever. I’m going to blink, and he’s going to be in bed until noon, asking to borrow the car and never be seen again until curfew. This tiny little boy, who sits in the very same spot at the kitchen island, morning after morning, and props his Lightning McQueen blankie on the island top right next to him – he’s going to grow up.

So I got the camera out. I snapped away. I wanted to capture this brief moment in time. A time when I still have to pop his waffles in the toaster and dust them with “powered shhuugar.” A time when I still have to pour milk into his favorite blue sippy cup and hand him half of a Flinstone vitamin. A time when it’s just us, for an entire hour, before the rest of the house awakes. A time when he has Mommy’s undivided attention, and doesn’t have to compete with any siblings or errands to be run. A time when we count the coffee scoops together, and share a smile in the comforting routine of it all. A time when I can take in all his bed-headed beauty and funny personality without one distraction…

I know there will come a day when he’s too cool for Spiderman plates, Toy Story cups, and Lightning McQueen blankies. And early mornings with Mom (or Dad – he does do his fair share too! ;), will be a distant memory. But for now, he’s still this sweet, innocent, playful little boy, and as much as I grumpily stumble out of bed when I hear his first call for “Mommy” in the wee hours of the morning, deep down I know how insanely lucky I am to be woken.