Zzzzzzzzzzzz

Turtle has been waking up a little too early for the last several mornings. At first, I thought it was a phase. He goes through them sometimes. He'll be doing well on the routine we have set up and then all of a sudden, he'll have a couple mornings when he'll wake up an hour or two early. It's a situation that usually resolves itself fairly quickly, so I wasn't overly concerned when it started happening last week. But not only has the situation not resolved itself, it keeps getting worse. In the course of a few days, he's gone from an 8:30 wake-up call to a 6:20 wake-up call. And although I am generally a morning person, I've been staying up late with Oscar, so I'm suffering.

I talked to my mom about this problem yesterday. She found it incredibly entertaining. Of course, she finds anything having to do with her grandson incredibly entertaining. If I recall correctly, the conversation went something like this:

Her: You sound tired.
Me: I am tired. Turtle got me up at 6:30 again this morning. He's not sleeping late enough in the morning and he's not napping like he should. He's exhausted and cranky and a brat and I'm losing patience. This is not acceptable.
Her: *giggling* Ahhhh...he's interested in his world! He can't wait to wake up and see what wonderful things are going on in the day.
Me: Yeah, that's great. It's still not acceptable.
Her: Well, you have a little boy who has inherited all of your stubbornness and intractability. This should be an interesting battle of wills.
Me: No, it won't. I'm bigger than he is and this is not acceptable.
Her: *laughing hysterically*
Me: Oh, stop it. I know what it sounds like, but really, he's not winning this battle.
Her: *still giggling* Good luck with that.

Can you believe that? Where is the sympathy? I mean, I know that grandkids are the grandparents' revenge for all of the crap their kids pulled on them, but I was an angel. I was a sweet child and a people pleaser. All it took was my parents giving me the hairy eyeball for me to burst into tears and start apologizing for my transgressions. I never took drugs. I wasn't promiscuous. I didn't smoke. I was a member of S.A.D.D. and didn't start drinking alcohol until I was legal. I cleaned the house. I did my laundry. Maybe I didn't clean my room as often as I should have, but I don't think that was enough to earn Mr. Let's Wake Up When the Sun Does, Mommy, Because the Sun Is Awesome.

So now I have no choice. No more sitting on the couch, watching Mulan and Pete's Dragon. I'm trying to think of anything and everything I can do to wear his little tushie out during the day. We're going to the gym and the park and maybe the mall, and we're going to play and run around and chase each other and wear each other out. Yep. We're going to do all of those things. It's going to be a very busy day. Yep. Just as soon as I get a nap.