The girls have funny ideas about waking up. Actually, they just have one funny idea about waking up – that they should do it as early as possible. After a long summer of having them get up at 6:00 or 5:30 or even earlier, we recently instituted a rule that they had to stay in their bedroom until 6:30. If they woke up before that, they had to read or play until 6:30. This has been largely successful, keeping them in their room until 6:30:02.
That’s not to say that their wakeups lack drama. On Wednesday night, we went to a friends’ place to watch a movie in their backyard. It was a big production, with a dozen families and a ridiculous number of kids of all ages. The movie (Rio, which I highly recommend) ended around 9:45, loooong past even the girls’ late summer bedtime. But they were home and in bed at 10:03, promising sleepily to sleep in.
I knew better than to think that was likely, but I hoped they would sleep in a little. And they did, leaping out of bed the next morning at 6:43 and bragging about how they’d “slept in.” Shannon and I couldn’t help but laugh, which was the wrong reaction, sending both (overtired) girls into tears for a few minutes.
We got past that, though, and had a really nice, busy day that ended with an easy, early bedtime. This time, they really did sleep in, right until the moment that Julia suddenly started crying in her bed. I ran upstairs to find her sitting up, pointing angrily at her clock – which read 7:03 – and complaining that it was wrong, that someone must have broken it. Vivi, awakened by the crying, was now crying too. I had to assure them both that the clock was right, that they’d actuall slept past seven. They were amazed and pleased at their incredible self-control.
Tonight’s bedtime was late-ish again. We’ll see what happens in the morning.