Morning Routine

One great thing about my mini “summer vacation” between jobs is my totally unrushed morning routine with Joseph (because there is no bus to catch at quarter to eight).

I love this routine. It basically goes as follows:

(1) Joseph wakes up sometime between 7 and 8:30, maybe plays a little bit, and eventually starts hollering.
(2) I walk in and he grins. If he’s not already standing, he hurries to his feet.
(3) I get him out of his crib and he snuggles into my shoulder while we sit in the rocking chair for a bit.
(4) After a few seconds, he decides it’s time to officially wake up, stops cuddling, looks at me, and smiles.
(5) Then I guess it’s time to make sure my face is all still here. He points to my nose, eyes, hair, ears, cheeks, etc., while I say the names of everything.
(6) Once he is sure my face is still here, he points to books and we read a couple of stories.
(7) After we have read a bit I say, “breakfast?” and he gets excited, slides off of my lap and goes to his high chair. Sometimes he gets distracted by toys on the way, though.
(8) Our favorite breakfast is smoothies. Todd doesn’t like them because they have spinach in them. But Joseph and I love them and sip them together.
(9) When it’s time to wake daddy up, I say, “want to go get daddy?” and he runs over to our room and when I put him on the bed he snuggles with Todd and then tickles/tackles him.
(10) If he’s not done so already, it is now time to dig into the toys he missed so much overnight.

Well, maybe that sounds kind of boring, but I love mornings with him. He is so excited to wake up in the morning and just be alive. It’s so fun to watch how much joy he gets out of simple things.

One of those simple things lately is sitting by himself in chairs. He gets such a kick out of it. Oftentimes when we’re sitting together reading, eventually he’ll make it clear to me that I’m no longer welcome on the chair.