Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Best 5:30 am Wake Up Ever


This morning I awoke at 5:30ish am.  It was the best.  I was laying on my right side and my right arm was tired so it was time to roll over.  Something in my consciousness woke me up first, saying "check out the situation before you move."  Good thing.  My son was also laying on his right side, cuddled up right next to me, his left arm wrapped over my face like it was a child's teddy bear.  My children don't have any stuffed animals they sleep with.  But my son found my head.  The extra fun to this was that his hand came over to my cheek and in his sleep he was playing with my beard!  He would play with it for seconds and then stop, and then play with it again.  I am so glad I started growing it back.  November was the first full month in at least ten or more years that I went an entire month clean shaven.  Back to the memory.  It was awesome.  It was so cute.  I got to feel the love of the Velveteen Rabbit.  And now I will be real for always.

I lay there refusing to move, letting my right arm tire and enjoying the closeness with my son.  I wish I could properly explain how awesome it felt to have him snuggled in and just sort of scratching my beard moving from my chin to my cheek.  Then, my daughter just flopped closer to me, on her back, sleeping face inches from mine and facing me, and rested her left arm on my left arm in front of my face.  Awesome!  I was simultaneously loving the moment and trying to figure how I could wake up Tami and convince her to go get a camera without waking the children while explaining the whole situation to her at 5:30ish am (I wasn't able to see the clock at this point) in a quiet enough voice.  I wanted to record this forever.  So, I took it all in.  I let Tami sleep.  I loved it all.  Eventually Enzo fell deeper asleep and left his hand resting on my beard.  Ana left her arm on mine.  I was in my own little heaven.  Then I knew it was time to move and gently freed myself without disturbing any of my family.  When I looked around to figure how to reinsert myself without being on my right arm, I realized what limited bed real estate was available and decided not to wake or move anyone.  I saw the time and new I had 30 minutes until my alarm so I got up and rested on the couch instead, cuddled up under a blanket that smelled faintly like dog despite the fact that Monte is not supposed to sleep on the couch, and basked in the memory of awesomeness.  What a morning.  I can still feel the contact and my love for Ana and Enzo.

Here are some recent pictures.

 (Santa picture.)

 (Christmas tree hunting.  Ana and her grandma.)

(Looking for two perfect trees.)

 (Cutting down his tree.)

(Walking in the Santa Cruz mountains.)

(Getting ready for the tree.)

 (Making Sunday breakfast.)

 (Being adorable.)

(Story time at Sunday breakfast.)

(Another story time at Sunday breakfast.)

(Our living room looks a little like a one room school house; super cool.)

(Don and some of the kids.)

(Game time.)