Monday Morning!

Last night, as I went to say goodnight to my boy, my husband asked me to turn the space heater off in his room when I walk out. It's been cold lately and we put a little heater in his room just to warm it up. My husband set it to high and then I went in to cuddle before saying goodnight. Well, I fell asleep with him for a little bit and when I left an hour later in my groggy state, I forgot to turn it off. At 3am, my son calls out to me. When I walk in his room, he is shirtless, blanket less and asking why his room is so hot. Fortunately, these machines are safe and work well; unfortunately, my son was sleeping in a sauna-like room. I apologized and when he asked if he could sleep in my bed with me, my guilty conscience said yes.

My husband has been at home with us lately, which is great, but after over a year of my son taking his place in my bed when he has been gone, we have gotten used to cuddling nights. Last night he crawled between the two of us and we all went back to sleep. My husband got up early and when my son woke up, he turned to me for a hug. For the next hour, we talked, sang songs and played silly games all while we stayed in bed. This is rare! We are off our schedule due to winter break and luckily we have no where we have to be most days this week. Monday mornings are typically the most difficult day to motivate us up and out of the house. Today, I happily took my time. I thought about little tasks I had to do today. I wondered about the timing of getting groceries and a running a few other errands. I wanted to make some plans for fun activities for the kids so I didn't want to linger in bed too long, but there was no way I was going to cut short this one on one time with my boy.

He talked about school and confided in me how scared he gets when he has to explain his work out loud. He talked about his teachers and why he loves them. He explained how great Fridays are because they get extra recess time. He sang the song they are learning in school and taught me all the words and hand motions. He asked what "Watermelon Sugar" by Harry Styles was about and I confessed that I had no idea. We then wrote our own lyrics that made more sense. At one point, we were talking about so many different topics that he turned to me and asked "What were we just discussing?" I couldn't help but giggle at his use of the word "discussing." In that moment, staring into his brown eyes, I took a mental picture of the moment. His cheeks still round, and his mouth a mash up of mostly baby teeth with a few adult ones sprinkled in front. His hair soft and tousled from sleep, his skin still baby soft. This little boy still wants to hug me and still wants to be hugged. He still asks to sit on my lap and when he needs to will cry in the crook of my neck. Almost without warning, he hopped out of bed to start his day. I stayed behind a few minutes more just to saver how full I felt. With a smile on my face I slowly got out of bed.

I don't know how many more mornings I will get like this one. Mondays are my least favorite day of the week, but this one was wonderful. When we are off from school, I feel like we all get closer. We let ourselves truly slow down. My kids have more time to spend with each other and I see them bond during vacations in a way they don't during the regular school year. We make plans as a family and the four of us spend concentrated amounts of time together. We have a whole week more off and I am looking forward to every second we have. Next Monday certainly will be more challenging when we have to get up and go to school again. I hear in some other countries, in addition to sick days, children are allowed a few free days to travel or just be together with family. I would love to start a movement to have that here. I might get a few more mornings like today, and that would be worth it.