Jonas is always the first to wake up in the morning.
"Mom, is it time to get up?" he asks me. It's dark outside, as I slowly awake from slumber.
"I don't know, just lay down for a few more minutes," I mumble.
He does, I close my eyes hoping it is not morning yet. He wakes me minutes later. I check my phone for the time and begin to rush him to get ready. Sometimes, Jeremiah does the rushing. Sometimes we wake up with plenty of time to spare. Sometimes.
I try my hardest to keep them extra quiet, so that the others don't wake up, but it never works. Paloma and Angus are up and ready to start their day when they hear any darn noise.
And we're off. It's non stop from there.
Making breakfast, cleaning messes, watching, listening, playing, crying, laughing, wiping, chasing, hugging, fighting, kissing, all day. Some days, I can't wait for nap time. Not because I don't want to be around my sweet babes, but just so that I can get a moment of quiet, to clean without having to stop what I'm doing or take a nap myself. Or to just sit and...be.
We drive to pick up Jonas and they fall asleep in the car. I sit and wait. Wait for my other, full-of-life child to get in the car.
At home, they are happy because big brother is home. They get wild. They run around, laugh, say silly things, make requests, of which many I have to say no to. I try to make them calm down. I make them stop fighting. I make them apologize.
I get dinner ready. We sit, we eat, we drink, we talk.
We get homework done in a not-so-constructive way, because Paloma wants to throw all the pencils on the floor and now she is crying because she was told 'NO' and Angus wants to jump on my back while I'm sitting on my chair, while trying to help Jonas.
And somehow the homework gets done. Somehow the kids are fed. Somehow they still have energy, even though the sky is dark and they've played and played.
Angus looks out the window and asks, "When's it gonna be morning again?" Soon, Angus, too soon, I think to myself.
Jonas need's to sleep by eight or his internal alarm clock wants to sleep in. Angus and Paloma fall asleep a little later because they napped.
When everyone is finally sleeping, it's late and I'm exhausted but I push it and stay up a little longer. Then sleep comes and all of a sudden, its still dark out but it's morning again and I'm wishing it wasn't, no, not yet.
"Mom, I think its morning. Is it time to wake up?"