The Morning Rush

**Note: I wrote this post 3 weeks ago. The week before the time change provided us with a week of extra early mornings. This new level of exhaustion prevented me from getting a picture of the boys in the stroller in the morning until a few days ago.**


On those HGTV shows when people are looking for a new house, they often point out a nice patio or deck off the master bedroom and make the following comment – “That would be such a nice place to sit and enjoy our morning coffee and read the paper.” Really? Are there people waking up extra early in the morning to allow time for this? And are they reading by lantern, because it is still dark when I get up.

Mornings at our house definitely don’t allow such a calming start to the day. Although I set my alarm clock each night, it rarely has the opportunity to wake me in the morning. My day starts earlier than I want when I am jolted awake by 1 or more little people demanding attention.

Depending on the time, I may feed the baby who is awake and get them to go back to sleep, or at least chill in a bouncy seat, so I can hop in the shower before anyone else wakes up. Then the other baby needs to eat, all 3 children need to be dressed and Juliana have breakfast – she doesn’t like to eat right after she wakes up, so breakfast is a struggle. Juliana – brush hair and teeth. We pick out Juliana’s clothes at night and if she wakes up in a good mood, she will get herself dressed. If she is tired or otherwise uncooperative, she decides to debate the clothing choice she made and insist that I get her dressed.

Bottles, breakfast, and extra clothes and bibs for the boys are packed in their bag. Miscellaneous forms/ permissions slips collected. Shoes, jacket, backpack for Juliana. At this point hopefully neither baby has spit-up all over their clothes or filled their diaper requiring a return to the changing table. Jackets and hats on boys, put them in the stroller, cover them with blanket(s) depending on the temperature. Push the stroller around the block, get the boys settled in their room, stuff put away for the day, take Juliana to her room and hope there isn’t any goodbye drama that morning. Walk home and sit down at my computer to work.

All of this before 8:00 am.