Crazy mornings

The mornings in the Pike household are typically an exercise in crisis management, but, occasionally, you get the unique moments like the one that resulted in the above listed picture.

I'm not sure who decided on the major fashion statement (I mean really Jess, Jackie-o glasses with a construction helmet? And who's Joey fooling? He looks like he's going fishing but is still in PJs), but both stopped and posed while singing a song to me.

Somehow, with cute faces and awesome personalities like these two, I never am able to get to the office on time. One of them always gets up just before 7:00am, usually Jess but every now and again Joey surprises us, and they will come into our room with a statement like "it's light out side. it's wake time."

If we opt not to respond or try the 'leave me alone' groan, we may be rewarded with a small warm body crawling into bed with us and lulling us to sleep with the drone of their thumb sucking. But, even that only lasts for fifteen to twenty minutes before a similar statement is made. We'll try to redirect them towards the playroom where the blazing light from the four incadescant bulbs will assuredly wake us up regardless of our requests to 'shut the playroom door.'

They will then band together, after some sort of discussion on the matter, and come back to us with a "we're hungry. we want breakfast" statement. This is our bio-alarm clock that works every day, rain or shine, no matter how little sleep or what time they went to bed at, that wakes us up at 7:00am every day system.

I must admit, though, the system is faulted as it doesn't support daylight savings time nor does it compensate very well for the change in early morning light in Summer... but we love it nonetheless.

We then start our morning with showers for Jenny and myself punctuated by the occasional visit from Jocie in the shower (she'll pound on the glass and scream at you 'till you decide to let her come in), or the "we didn't bathe you last night so now you have to take a shower with us" injustice that may befall Joey or Jess (which they hate). Most of the time, Jenny takes care of getting outfits and pushing the kids into them, every now and then I'll decide its not too beneath me to help out, which is an attribute of our mornings I'm sure she'd love to change, but hey, she didn't marry Mr. Perfect, and I will only go so far for fear of setting the bar that much higher for her expectations (the lower it is, the better I look when I do help out occasionally).

It is usually my job to get bowls out and help the kids with their morning dining decisions. Joey is 100% Lucky Charms. Jocie is 100% Cheerios. Jess, well, she runs the gambit. Every now and then, Jess will really switch things up with a required 'oatmeal' request, and she'll settle for thing else.

Brush teeth, get shoes on, coats, and gather back packs, and all of this seems to take more and more time each day. Somehow, the two find ways to play, lolly gag, and just generally mosey through the morning routine. I'd love to be to work by 8:00am each morning, but, it's always 9:00 by the time I'm actually able to roll into the office, unless I forget my ID badge or even my laptop, like I did this morning.

And the experts say this is what is supposed to bring us unending happiness?

Really, it is a lot of fun. I'm sure I was just as much of a pain when I was their age, but, it seems that these two influence each other in the lack of a speedy morning. The phrase 'thick as thieves' comes to mind. They egg each other one, they prod one another, the push each other to the extreme. And, when all that is not enough, they'll lie about what the other one did just to escape blame, but, mostly Jess will lie and blame Joey.

I love them and I love every minute of my time with them. They just make me think way too much sometimes.

jp