Lazy Mornings

I have always admired the moms who manage to get out of the house early with their kids. I’ve got friends who wake up at the crack of dawn and work out, shower, do laundry, and pretty much conquer the world before their kids even get out of bed. Then they show up at our 9:30 AM play dates looking gorgeous and put together with their hair and makeup done, their diaper bags well stocked. (You know who you are. Love you, ladies!)

I am not one of those moms. My kids are my alarm clock. I don’t stir until I hear them begin to babble and giggle through the baby monitor. Then I linger in bed as long as possible and check Facebook and email on my cell phone before I drag myself to their room to free them from their cribs. If they get up at 6:30, I get up at 6:30. If they get up at 7:30, I get up at 7:30.

It seems the twins’ wake-up time is on the later end whenever we have somewhere to be in the morning. This means I inevitably end up rushing to make it to the gym or to Gymboree or to the play date looking like the typically frazzled mom, bare-faced and in sweats. Then when I reach into the diaper bag to get a bib or a snack or something else important, I find that I left it home.

Still, there are many things I love about our laid-back morning schedule (or lack thereof). My absolute favorite? Our lazy breakfasts. Since the boys were born, they would sit with me (and Keith if he was home) and watch me eat breakfast, drink my coffee, and read the newspaper. They started out on the floor next to me in their Boppy Newborn Loungers, just staring at me or snoozing. Next, they graduated to their bouncers and drank their bottles while I ate. Then they moved into their high chairs and we started eating breakfast together. First they would eat their baby food, then whatever I was eating—pancakes, yogurt, cereal, etc.

Now, they’ve taken it a step further. Not only do Matt and Nate want to eat what I eat, but they want to read the newspaper with me, too! They’ll take any section, whether it’s the front page or the sports, and sift through it with pensive looks on their little faces. Sometimes they’ll fight over a section (especially a car dealership insert). They’ve even figured out how to look at the paper without knocking their food all over the floor. If Keith and I start reading headlines or articles aloud to each other, they’ll “read” theirs aloud, too. It is totally awesome.

Here is a photographic chronology of my boys during our lazy breakfasts:

I love the fact that Keith and I are instilling a love of reading—and of newspapers—in the twins. When they are adults and everyone is getting their news electronically on whatever new technology is out by then, my boys will probably be the last holdouts who refuse to get their news from anywhere but the good, old-fashioned newspaper. (Sometimes I already feel like one of the last holdouts!)

And while I do sometimes stress about the piles of dirty laundry, the errands I just haven’t gotten to, or the fact that we sometimes can’t manage to get out of our pajamas until noon, I really do cherish my lazy mornings with my family. I love not feeling rushed—playing with and reading to the boys, lingering over breakfast, and just spending quality time together.

That’s not to say I don’t wish I could suddenly become a morning person and start waking up early: That would allow me to get a jump on the day and still have that lazy family time. But the reality is, I am not a morning person. My numerous attempts to change that have been futile. So now, I just embrace it. If getting those extra, precious minutes of sleep in the morning means dealing with a bit of chaos later on—and sometimes leaving the house in mismatched clothes and no makeup—then so be it!