It's Wake-Up Time!

There are many, many things I adore about being a mom, and especially, about being a stay-at-home mom. Truly, despite my frequent complaints over what a difficult baby she is/was, I wouldn't trade my life home with Julia for anything (which should be obvious by a quick glance at my checking account). I love being able to eat breakfast with her in our jammies rather than running around trying to get out the door to daycare. I love being the one to witness ALL her discoveries and new skill acquisitions. If she suddenly counts correctly to ten or talks about how aardvarks eat bugs, I know exactly where she learned it: from us. I love not having time to miss her during the day, because I'm WITH her. I love being the one to decide that she is going to eat pita and hummus with fresh cucumbers for lunch, not frozen chicken nuggets (for now, anyway). And I love all of our adventures, most of which would probably not fall into the category of "adventures" in the mind of anyone else (you know: trying out a new park with a brontosaurus slide, shopping for avocados at Cub, visiting the big Ernie doll in the children's section at the public library).

BUT. Can I just say this one thing? This new trend of Julia insisting on having a tea party with Mama the SECOND she wakes up, before I've even had a glass of water or formed a coherent thought? Finding myself sitting on the floor of the family room cradling a purple pastic teacup alongside a giant stuffed orangutan and a matted fuzzy orange cat, blearily commenting on how tasty the tea is while all the while thinking desperately of the espresso that awaits me downstairs in the kitchen, if I could only convince my toddler to go down for her own breakfast? And this all occurring sometime between 6:30 and 7:30 in the morning, depending on the day? I could do without that. Later in the day? Fine. I'm all for it. We have ten to fifteen other tea parties a day. But at 7 a.m.? Um, no. Unless it's a REAL tea party, and instead of tea, we are drinking strong iced soy lattes and eating raspberry scones from Blue Monday. (And yes, I am highly enjoying the consumption of caffeine during this pregnancy. The second time around, you just don't care as much. Shocking, I know.)