Like all other parents of small children, we’re usually woken up by either (a) arguing, (b) a series of loud, alarming bumps and bangs or (c) chirpy nonsense. The preferred option is (c) - it just doesn’t get your hackles up like the other two do. Sure, it’s far from ideal to be woken up before dawn to answer how many sleeps it is until Beti’s party1, or whether owls have willies2. But with practice it’s the kind of thing you can respond to whilst still asleep, rather than leaping into fully-awake conflict resolution mode from which there is no return.
Yesterday started with Lauren hurtling into the room some time around half past six. “Mummy!” she chimed. “Is today my real birthday or did I dream it?”
“No,” came a groggy reply from the pillow next to me, “you dreamt it.”
“OK!” And off she skipped.
1 “Lots, and I was just enjoying one of them. Her birthday’s not until December. Go back to bed.”
2 [Long pause.] “Good question. I’ll get back to you on that one.”
Lovely! We particularly enjoyed the bit about owls.
Love Simon, Tash and Beti
My three-year-old boy’s preferred method of waking us up is to throw open our bedroom door and shout at the top of his lungs: “ME EAT!!!” Well, good morning to you, too. My wife and I often talk about how it will likely be another ten years or so (we have a seven-week old girl as well as a five-year-old girl) until we can sleep in peacefully on a Sunday morning…
Our two girls are 2 and 8 months and still in their cribs. At bedtime they chirp with each other for up to an hour before going to sleep and often wake up the next morning seemingly picking up where they left off until we go in and get them.
Of course there have the been the few times when they woke up at 2 AM chirped for an hour or two and then went back to sleep.
We’re moving them to beds in September, that should be an adventure.
Hrrm, to clarify, both girls are 2.66 years old. It is not the case that one is 2 and one is 8 months. They are, in fact, twins.