First Day of School: Waking Up Early
September 6th, 2006Sebastian's first day of school was a success in every way! For the past couple nights, we have been trying to get Sebastian to bed earlier so he can wake up early enough to be ready for school without rushing. For a family that is usually awake at 11 p.m. and rarely up before 9 a.m., this is a feat in and of itself. Sebastian had trouble getting to sleep so early, and he tossed, turned, and complained to my wife for an hour and a half before finally settling in and falling asleep. This morning, however, Sebastian woke up with plenty of time to spare. To my surprise and dismay, he woke me up at 6 a.m., well before the alarm clock was scheduled to go off.
Sebastian and I got kicked out of the bedroom for talking too much while my wife and Dylan tried to sleep, so we moved to Sebastian's room to talk some more about school and other goings-on in Sebastian's life. I briefly attempted to pick out school clothes for Sebastian to wear on his first day of school. As a note, I knew for sure that the selected clothes would soon be vetoed by my wife as soon as they were noticed, so I skipped that all-too-familiar process and sent Sebastian to his mother for wardrobe selection duties. Sebastian and I went to the kitchen and casually prepared and ate some cereal.
By this time, my wife was up and awake and helped Sebastian with the details of getting ready. My wife also verbally gave him the obligatory list of "twenty things to remember on your first day of school when you can't even remember to bring your own backpack with you." The way that mothers check, recheck, and rerecheck things with kids on their first day of school reminds me of all the procedures that astronauts have to go through from the moment they start getting ready to the moment of liftoff, except instead of sending a thirty-something into outer space, you're sending a five-year-old a few blocks away.
I also marveled at the sight of my wife writing Sebastian's name inside each of his shoes. You just don't see that every day — but if you do see that every day, you might want to get that person checked for OCD.