Morning Routine

We have a morning routine. It varies only slightly from day to day. Gaby starts to move around and talk to herself in her crib around 5:30 or 6am. After listening to her sweet sounds for a little while and thinking that maybe she'll go back to sleep, I finally get up and get her bottle ready. Then I go into her room for the best moment of the day- the first hugh smile! She is always so happy to see me. It used to make my day when the puppies were always happy to see me. It's a great feeling- unconditional love. They should try and bottle it. I digress. I get my sweetie and head back to my bed. Gaby drinks (gulps!) down her bottle and then snuggles in for another hour or hour and a half nap. And I snuggle right down with her. It's those quiet moments that I will treasure for the rest of my life. She always smells so good. And her skin is so soft. We hold hands and doze off. Then I wake up later to the sound of her stirring and then quietly talking to herself or her teddy. I pretend to sleep and just listen until the last moment. Until she's decided to start slapping me in face or pulling my hair. As if to say, Ok mom, time for you to wake up too. Now I can hear what the experts have to say: "You should not take your baby to your bed. You will teach her bad habits. She will always want to crawl into bed with you." My response to that is- is it really so bad?? I think not! This is the sweetest, most amazing time of the day! I'm going to blink one day and my little, precious baby will be a rebellious, independent teenager. And our morning ritual will be reduced to a fading memory and a blurb on a blog. So I will cherish these moments forever because Gaby will only be this small once. And I intend to enjoy every fleeting minute. I, of course, am afforded this luxury because at this moment I am a stay-at-home mom. I am so appreciative of this time. And for those times when I'm frustrated, tired or bored of the "mom thing", I just think about our very special morning routine. As they say in the commercials- it's priceless:)!