Friday Morning

I set an alarm every weekday for work.  I don’t know why I do this since my alarm actually hasn’t had to go off in order for me to wake up for a very long time.  Maybe it’s just ingrained in me as habit since I’ve been working for half my life or maybe it’s a cruel joke I like to play on myself.  I had my alarm set for 6 today, and at 5:30 my human alarm clock rolled over and grabbed my cheeks and said “where my backpack?” in a very low and demanding voice.  Charlotte went to sleep asking about her “backpack,” a PJ Masks lunchbox that is filled with her PJ masks toys, so it’s only natural that she woke up and was immediately thinking of her backpack.  That extra half hour probably wouldn’t have done anything for my perpetually exhausted state, but I was annoyed nonetheless.  I told her I would get her backpack, just so I could continue to lay in bed while she played until I absolutely, positively, had to start getting ready, but this was not on her game plan.  She shouted “CHAR COMES!” at the top of her lungs.  How this kid wakes up with this kind of energy, I will never know.  We literally went to bed at the same time, so you would think we both got enough sleep to just wake up with the same energy levels, but this is not the case.  The dog, of course, wakes up the second he hears Charlotte’s voice.  This is also a phenomenon I don’t understand because Charlotte terrorizes the shit out of Spanky, so you would think he would hide in the dark for as long as possible.  Spanky wants to see what’s in the backpack, which leads to Charlotte screaming at the poor animal at this ungodly hour.  “Shut it up Spanky! Get down Spanky!”  It’s still dark.  I’m dizzy from walking up stairs in my still half asleep state and haven’t even gotten a chance to turn the coffee on yet.

But then she sits at the kitchen table and plays with her toys, and she looks up at me as I burn the roof of my mouth with life sustaining caffeine, and she says “I love you so much mommy.  SO MUCH!”  She asked for a hug and a kiss.  I obliged.

And perhaps it’s all worth it after all.