Wake up!

You would think that after all the time I've spent complaining about Kaylani not getting enough sleep during the past week, I wouldn't be asking her to wake up early for me. But this weekend, I found myself staring at the monitor in the mornings thinking "wake up Kaylani! It's time to play!" And that led to Mommy wondering what the heck was wrong with me.

This past weekend didn't provide me with any more sleep than the rest of the week. As usual, my body and brain betrayed me and kicked into gear around 5:45am each day. While getting started early on weekdays helps me get off to a good start for work, it provides me with something I'm not used to on weekends: free time. 5 months ago, I came to the realization that free time for parents did not exist. Since then, I've accepted that realization and even learned to dislike any free time that I did have because it made me feel alone. Well, weekend mornings are apparently not any different. While everyone was home, I was still alone.

After catching up with all the Fatherhood Fridays posts over at Dad-Blogs, I quickly skimmed ESPN for any interesting news, and then I twiddled my thumbs. I tried to talk to Mommy but I got a "Pa, leave me alone for a little bit more okay?" for my troubles. It was 6:15am which meant that Kaylani should be waking up any minute now so I waited. And waited. And waited some more. It wasn't until 6:45am or so that Kaylani made her first move. But like the rules of dating, I didn't dare go at her first sound. Instead, I waited for her to cry out for me so I could run in her room and be the hero who saved my daughter from the lonely confines of the crib that she spent all night in. But that moment never really happened.

For what seemed like forever, Kaylani laid in her crib playing with her stuffed monkey. She shook it, she chewed on it, she moved it from side to side. For a bit, I thought she was even waving at the camera to tease me by saying hi, but it turns out she was fascinated with the opening and closing of her own hand (or had one of Mommy's hairs stuck between her fingers...tough call). Throughout all of this, I sat at the edge of our bed (to Mommy's dismay) just waiting for Kaylani to cry out to me.

I felt like I was 10 years old and at the town pool waiting for adult swim to end so us kids could dive back in and splash around. "5 minutes kids. 5 minutes" would be the sign for all of us to sit on the edge of the pool. We'd stare at the adults slowly making their way out of the pool. We watched the lifeguards seemingly swim through quicksand to remove the lap ropes. And then we'd hear "alright kids" and the whistle would blow and all would be right in the world again. Just like back then, I was never very good at the whole waiting thing.

At 7:15am I gave up. Kaylani was talking to herself which I figured was close enough to crying out for me. I mumbled "get up, I'm going in" to Mommy as I ran out of our bedroom. Before Mommy could even try and stop me, the ribbon/binder clip contraption that holds her door slightly open ever since the WD-40 incident was off and I was in the room. I shut off the humidifier, opened her blinds, turned off the night light, then picked up my smiling little girl. Finally she was awake! Finally I had something to do! Finally we could get the day started! Finally I got to play the role of hero as I rescued her from her lonely confines of her crib...kinda.

Anyways, that about sums up for my day. I mean, sure we did other stuff like have waffles on Sunday, go to Church, buy $40 of baby food and a turtle shaped floaty for the pool, and then actually use it (the floaty, not the food) in Aidan's pool, but all that seemed to go by much quicker than the first 90 minutes of my day. Funny how that works. I'm sure I'd feel different about Kaylani sleeping in if my body and brain ever let me sleep in, but since I don't see that happening anytime soon, I guess we'll just do it this way. Or maybe I'll bang some pots together next time to get her to wake up. Tough call.