Waking the Sleeping Giant

Those of you who know Peter know that he's not easy to wake up in the morning. He is a natural night owl and often works late into the night. He is able to focus better and gets more done at night than he can during the day. So, staying up late isn't the problem. Getting up in the morning is.

I've tried many different techniques over the years, all of which are either ineffectual or actually compound the problem. Nothing seemed to work. . . until now. I have discovered a secret weapon that is at least somewhat effective in getting Peter to wake up in a fairly decent mood. . . Jaden!!

Don't get me wrong, I did not set out to use my son as a weapon for evil intent. It all happened quite by accident. After my shower one morning, I opened the door to the bedroom so I could let the steam out and get some clothes to wear that day. While I was getting dressed, Jaden discovered that Daddy was in bed. If you've read my earlier post about Jaden being a Daddy's boy, you'll understand how exciting this discovery was for him. Before I could stop him, he crawled over to Peter's side of the bed, pulled up, and started banging on the mattress, exclaiming, "Dada! DADA!" When Peter turned to see what was going on, Jaden's squeal of delight brought a smile to Peter's lips. That's right, an actual smile at being woken up prematurely!

Since that day, Peter has actually told me that it's alright to let Jaden come to see him in the morning. What's that? Permission to wake him up? Amazing!! So, after my shower each morning, Jaden gets to crawl up into bed with Daddy and "wrastle" with him a little bit. He sometimes gets to play with Peter's cell phone or the TV remote, and he sometimes just attacks Daddy. Either way, the smiles and laughter make it all worth while.

Here's the side view. . .


Here's Daddy's view. . .


Now, I don't know how long the charm of being woken up by Jaden will last, but I'm willing to shamelessly use it while I can. Just wait until baby #2 arrives. . . Poor Daddy :)