This may sound very strange, especially if you could see how tired and unmotivated I am this morning. 🙂 But, this morning I am thankful for our 3:00 am and 3:45 am wake up call from our littlest. It didn’t start out well, as neither my husband, nor I wanted to get up and gather our crying one (sad, huh!). We were both pretty beat. While he doesn’t eat at night anymore, I climbed out of bed, and prepared a bottle for him, thinking that with the time change this past weekend, he must just be a little off. He was happy to get this bottle for sure and was super snugly and sweet. That alone was worth the wake up. This busy little one moves pretty fast during the day. 🙂
Then, thinking he would be all set with the snack, I said goodnight to him and put him back in his little bed. He seemed to go right to sleep and maybe he did, but at about 3:45, he was awake again. This time my husband went in to check on him. He brought him out of his room and took him into the kitchen and got him a little bowl of Cheerios and came and sat on the floor in our bedroom with him and the Cheerios. It was just about the cutest thing ever. Our little one was all smiles with his daddy sitting by him as he took the Cheerios out of the bowl, one by one, and munched on them. He was laughing and giving high-fives as if it was the middle of the day and not the wee hours of the morning. Our spirits were lifted with his excitement and sweetness as he shared this time with us. About 4:15, my husband tried again, and put him back to bed. We were tired, but light-hearted.
Having had our oldest move out to live in the dorms at the college he attends this year has made it clear that sweet moments like these are over much sooner than we would like. Everything changes in the blink of an eye, and your little one is an adult (whom we are very proud of!). As these “midnight moments” happen when they are little, sometimes they masquerade as interruptions, when in reality they are divine appointments where memories are made. They are special and irreplaceable.
So today, I am thankful for divine appointments with our children and spouses. I hope to grasp onto them more completely, and see them for the gifts that they really are…even at 3:00 am.
P.S. This photo above is from another time to protect the pajama-ed 🙂
