Mornings with Kalina

There's no doubt that little miss Kalina is a morning person. She will excel at an office job (or perhaps as an elementary school teacher) and will probably take up jogging at some point in her life.

For now, she's turning her mommy and daddy into morning people, too. Early-morning people, unfortunately. We've both resigned ourselves to the fact that from now until who-knows-when, our day will start before 6:00 a.m.

So, what do you do at 5:37 in the morning with a toddler in tow?

When Kalina was still waking several times at night, every day began with anguish. One of us would stagger to the nursery and sink into the poofy recliner, hoping against all hope to be able to catch just a few more winks of precious shut-eye as Kalina explored the nursery. We'd then move to the floor, and lay there in the half-dark listening to the cats meow for food. Kalina would happily play. Forty-five minutes later, we'd stumble downstairs and start counting down the minutes until the first nap, which would generally start as the second parent was stumbling out of bed.

Now Kalina is down to one nap and we've settled into more of a routine. Whichever parent is graced with the privilege of taking care of Kalina in her pre-dawn hours more often than not plunks Kalina into the stroller and heads off into the neighborhood for an early morning walk. Because there's nothing else to do, especially when you're trying to let the other parent sleep in. We encounter:
1. No one
2. People with dogs
3. Joggers

Our early walks are, admittedly, enjoyable. The birds sing and the air is cool. We watch the sun take its place on the horizon, and anyone we meet smiles sympathetically at us. They are awake by choice; we, they can tell, are not. We smile back.

We try to stay quiet for the neighbors, not slamming the back of my station wagon shut after getting the stroller out, and only tapping it closed once we put the stroller back in. We remember what sleeping in on Saturday mornings used to be like and are not yet so embittered that we can't preserve them for others.

Upon returning from the walk, we fix Kalina her second breakfast and once she's content, eat our own first breakfast. It's still early, but the morning looks brighter already. The day stretches ahead of us, and the other parent should soon be up to relieve us and send us to the shower. We're happy to play quietly with Kalina as we wait, and perhaps clean up the kitchen.

By 10:30 a.m., we've accomplished several tasks, answered our emails, had a shower, eaten two meals and headed out on the aforementioned walk. We are now able to laugh at the realization that although our childless counterparts have barely rolled out of bed, we've been up for five hours already. And then we grumble as we recall that most babies we know sleep as late as 6:30 or 7:00--sometimes later.

At 11:15 or so, Kalina has lunch and then naps at noon. We've made it through another morning and an hour and a half of joyous quietude awaits us. And after she wakes, it'll just be another six hours until bedtime.

Photos: Kalina's grandpa and grandma Odegaard visited! On day 3, she let Grandma hold her and by day 4, Grandpa got a chance. This is a huge improvement from just a few weeks ago!