Why can't I be Miss Mary Sunshine?

It’s the end of a long and busy week, made longer by long mornings with Sayer. I am not a night owl by nature, but I do prefer to wake up via a curve of consciousness that gradually moves from semi-comatose to ready for action. In contrast, Sayer seems to have two switches, ON and OFF, and after (gratefully) a full night’s sleep he is ON in spades. As a result, even though I am usually in bed by 10:00 pm or so, I struggle each school morning to keep up with his temperament.

Sayer’s cue to get dressed each morning is when Jacob leaves for his high school bus at 6:55 [Yes, we DO feel his pain, poor guy!!]. Then Sayer is raring to go downstairs, have his bagel with cream cheese and then---well, pretty much to keep vigil on the street lights that surround our house. I get a play-by-play of which ones are off, which ones are still on. At the same time, I boil water for our French press coffee maker and anticipate the moment when the coffee – nectar of the gods – will reach my bloodstream. And don’t cross my path if we have run out of ½ and ½!!

In the bad timing department, Sayer is very difficult to engage in the morning, before school, while I am full of morning-foggies and lack the ability to channel him into much focused activity. This is exacerbated by the fact that we won’t let him play Wii bowling before school; we’re not keen on video games before school. Once my coffee kicks in, we sometimes do some jumping and singing on the mini-trampoline; a good sensory input activity.

Today I googled “How to become a morning person” but skipped any links that mentioned cutting back on caffeine (there were quite a few of those, unfortunately). I did find this article from the Seattle Times, How to rise and shine when you’re nocturnal by nature useful, but I was disappointed to read this cold truth about Dr. Michael Smolensky, co-author of The Body Clock Guide to Better Health: “While he says he can reset you body’s clock so you’ll get enough sleep and reliably wake up on time, he can’t turn you into Mary Sunshine.” If he can’t turn me into Mary Sunshine I may be doomed!

Here is a blog entry is written by a mom in Canada who writes a blog called The Balancing Act. She writes about being surrounded by morning children (and grown ups). She has to get up at 5:30, which makes 6:55 seem downright luxurious.