mornings with Malia

I have quite a different morning schedule now.  I am up at the butt crack of dawn and it is not to go running (which is what I used to do if I was getting up at 5:00 am for the day).  Malia is a very early riser and no longer wants to go back to sleep after I nurse her in the morning.  I always put her back in her crib, but she usually plays in there for about 10 minutes, then I hear, "mama".  Needless to say, my days start super early.

I go back in her and she is just so excited to see me, as if she didn't just see me to nurse. I take her out of the crib and we open her curtains and blinds, which she just loves.  She waves to the outside then we settle into the glider chair and read books.  She also loves this and will peer over the edge of the chair, into her basket of books to see which ones are in there.  If she likes the book, she will sit and listen, if it isn't a book she is interested in, she quickly turns all the pages and then insists on another one.  The tricky thing is to try and make Malia have a soft voice.  This girl still loves to scream and I don't want her to wake up the rest of the house.  Some of her favorite books right now are, "Goodnight moon", "Hungry Little Caterpillar" (she likes putting her fingers in the holes), "Pat the Bunny", "Good night Gorilla", "I Love You Through and Through" and any book with a flap she can open and play peek-a-boo with.  She also loves books with real photographs of animals, or children, or real life things.  Some books she is not so into are ""Owl Babies" and "Guess How Much I Love You", I think they are too wordy for her right now.

After reading a whole bunch of books, I feel a little bit more awake and we venture into the living room.  I have not changed her diaper because she absolutely hates it and will scream bloody murder.  I wait until Kekoa wakes up so he can entertain her and then maybe she won't scream so much.  We play for a bit in the living room while I try to sneak away to make breakfast.  She doesn't like this at all and crawls into the kitchen after me and pulls on my legs.  It makes it really hard to cook.  If Kekoa is up by this point, then she plays with him and it makes it a little easier, unless they are both starving...in this case I have two super hangry children (hungry and angry).

My mornings are not slow mornings, there is no taking my time to drink coffee or eat my breakfast (wait, did I even get to eat my breakfast??).  But I do cherish the time I have to spend with just me and my girl.  Do I cross my fingers every night that she will sleep longer, of course I do!!  Maybe tonight will be the night!