Morning Bliss

I start to stir, and prepare my eyes for the inevitable brightness from the windows, as the morning sunlight splashes into my room.  I become aware of  mewing sounds coming from the monitor, and know without checking that it must be around 6- 6:30, it was an uneventful night, so I'm not expecting any early morning shenanigans.

Sure enough I turn around and the clock greets me with 6:15 today, and I can see that Lucas is doing his usual morning routine of playing in his crib, he already has the aquarium on, and it seems that he is having a wrestling match with his stuffed giraffe. I watch him for a few minutes, as he alternates between crawling around, to standing and playing with the balls on his sports themed mobile, to laying on his tummy and burrowing his face in his sheets.  I see that he has woken with his usual effervescence, and start to mentally prepare myself for what is sure to be an action packed morning. 

As always I let Lucas wake himself up for the day, it gives us both time to adjust for the morning, well especially me.  I lay there and think about what I have planned for the day, what I'm going to make for dinner, what chores are on the list today, do I need to run any errands, do we have an activity planned.  I relish these moments of relative silence before Lucas is ready for me to get him, before my day officially starts.  I know I should use those 20 minutes to brush my teeth, comb my hair, and change, but I need that time to "wake up".  Lucas is sure to keep me running around all day, and he is, like most children his age, in need of something all the time, food, cuddles, conversation, a playtime companion.  I'm always only to happy to oblige, but it generally means that I will never have time with my own thoughts until he's sleeping at night, since naps are usually full of those things I was organizing in my brain this morning. 

He starts to have a conversation with himself, or with the aquarium, I turn and see he that he seems engrossed in quite the argument with his giraffe, so I'm off to his room.  After all I can't wait any longer I'm dying to burrow my face in his sweet smelling neck, and indulge in the best morning cuddles.  I walk into his room, and he instantly stands with his arms outstretched waiting for me to pick him up, once there he lays his head on my shoulder and just snuggles in.  There really isn't any better way to be greeted in the morning.  We sit on the rocking chair and have our usual morning conversation; "how did you sleep", "are you hungry this morning", "what shall we do today".  I'm well aware that these are one sided conversations, but he looks at me, and sometimes makes his grunting noises, and throws in the occasional Mama, and its all I need for now, one day he will be talking as much as his mama loves to.

I change Lucas for the day, no fussing today, lets hope that bodes well for the rest of the day, and I put him down so I can take care of myself, out on some cartoons to entertain him.  However he follows me around as I change, brush my teeth, and throw in a load of laundry.  He throws a smile my way whenever I look at him, and I can't help but join him.

I remember waking up to go to work everyday, and dreading the commute to the office, sitting at my computer with a large coffee just to get through the morning emails and messages.  This year I have woken up earlier, with less hours of sleep, with more worries and concerns than ever before.  But every morning I wake up to the sounds of my child, and to those welcoming arms that need me.  No morning will ever be the same, and I probably won't ever sleep in again but nothing compares to those snuggles.  That right there, that's morning bliss.