Rise & Shine

It is my favorite part of the day.  It is 6:45, I sit with a cup of tea and my laptop, catching up on blogs, email or work with the video monitor next to me.  Craig paces around the kitchen pausing at every noise to ask “is she up?!”  Soon, she will open her eyes or begin to toss and turn.  I will see that she is starting to wake and say to him, “in just a minute.”

When I give him the go ahead nod, he drops his spoon or his newspaper and dashes up the steps, often two at a time, yelling, “I’m coming to get you baby girl.  DADDY WILL GET YOU.”  In the monitor I watch her look around because she hears his voice and she starts to grin.  She knows what comes next.  He sweeps into her room, picks her up out of her crib and showers her with kisses and ‘good morning’ hugs. 

She smiles sleepily at me as her daddy carries her down the steps.  I take the paci out of her mouth and say “you don’t need that.”  I kiss her forehead and she pulls my hair.  “Good morning to you, Mommy.”

In a few minutes we will rush to get her fed and dressed and out the door as we both start our busy days.  It is those ten minutes when she first wakes up, and she smiles and tells us about her dreams that will be with both of us until we get home.