I wouldn’t call myself a morning person or an evening person — I tend to droop at either end of the day. 

But lately, waking up hasn’t been so bad at all.

Ever since she got out of the crib and into the big girl bed, Sophie’s been crawling into bed with us — at night, if she can get away with it, but more typically once it’s light out. As soon as she arrives, I’m pretty much done sleeping. Wake me, and that’s it. Ray’s more of a roll over and go back to bed kinda guy. Annabelle will sleep as late as you let her.

So Sophie and I spend a lot of mornings together. She pads into our room, crawls up between us, and we both toss and turn til I give up and grope for my glasses. (A lovely development of the mid-40s — blindness.) And we start our day.

Yesterday, instead of crawling in with us, she came around to my side, saw that I was stirring, and took my hand, kissing it gently. “I love you,” she whispered, looking hopeful. How could I not get up?

She led me to the bathroom, even put the seat down for me, and sat on the bathroom mat to chat.

So sweet. It’s the little things. We should all have someone to walk ahead of us in the morning and put the seat down.

Speaking of little things, this morning Sophie crawled in and cuddled up, thumb in mouth, ready for a few more minutes of rest. I wasn’t ready to get up either, so I closed my eyes. Something told me to touch my ear, and when I did, sure enough, one of my small silver hoop earrings was missing. Trying to be quiet, I groped around a bit, hoping to find it, wondering if it was gone for good. No luck. I sighed and rolled over.

And then came a little voice. “Here Mommy,” Sophie said, pressing the earring into my hand and settling back for more cuddling. We both sighed – happily this time — as I put the earring in and closed my eyes.