I consider myself a pretty even keel person. Generally happy and easy going, willing to roll with what ever life throws at me.  I try to keep my home a happy one even if that means reminding myself over and over that my kids are still little and to cut them some slack.  And most of the time, that works.

Except between 5 and 6 am.  During those hours, I’m less mommy and more Dragon Lady.

The Bean sleeps through the night unless she’s sick- 12 to 13 beautiful, restful hours of sleep.  Scorch? Not so much. He’s up at least once, sometimes twice, a night.  He needs a drink or to use the bathroom or just to tell me about a dream/nightmare he’s had.  Most of the time I do fine with this- help him to the bathroom, get him the drink and smile and nod.  Then he goes right back to bed and all is well with the world.

But if he gets up after 5 am for any of those reasons there is a damn good chance he won’t go back to bed. Instead he’ll lay in bed yelling for me every 10 minutes or so asking if it’s time to get up. Never mind that he can tell time, never mind that he knows very well he’s not allowed out of bed until at least 6 am.  And it makes me crazy.

So crazy, in fact, that I turn into a hissing, raging mess.

Go to bed!

Close your eyes right now!

If you yell for me one time, I will take away every one of your dinosaurs for a week!

You, sir, will be NAPPING today because you are up way too early!

You may watch TV, but if you come upstairs before Special Agent Oso is over I will NOT BE HAPPY.

Yes, I’m very proud of that last one. Threatening my kid to watch TV or else so I can get an extra 30 to 60 minutes of sleep.  See, that is why I turn into such a lunatic.  When it’s the middle of the night, I know I can go back to bed and get a good chuck of sleep. But at 5 am I know I’ll be lucky to get another full 60 minutes of sleep- 60 precious minutes that are interrupted too many times to count as sleep at all.

I keep reminding myself that the time will come soon enough when I have to drag Scorch out of bed at 11 am on the weekends, but that is cold comfort in the early morning dark. *yawn*