Good morning!

Any hope that I had of sleeping in on this last day before Jack starts kindergarten were dashed when I felt a little boy fidgeting in bed next to me.  Jack has been wanting to have "sleepovers" with me.  I've been letting him every now and then, because I'm trying so much to cherish this time before school and other kids pull him further away from me.

For the most part, I enjoy the sleepovers almost as much as he does.  My favorite part is in the mornings, when we are both still too sleepy to get out of bed (well, I am anyway) but not too sleepy to have lazy conversations.  The downside, of course, is that I don't sleep nearly as well with him in the bed with me.  He was pretty good last night, but Jack can be a pretty restless sleeper.  There have been nights when I'll feel a little foot kick me in my ribs or an arm whack me across the face.  And he just naturally wakes up earlier than I do anyway.

This morning, I could feel some wiggling and kicking and rustling beside me.  The light coming through the window wasn't nearly bright enough for me to be doing anything other than sleeping.  I glanced at the clock, and it was 6:35.  I groaned inwardly, but that's what time we're going to have to start waking up to get Jack to school.

"Jack, are you awake?" I whispered.

"Yeah," he whispered back.

We proceeded to have one of those wide-ranging conversations that I love having with Jack.  I love when I try to explain something to him, and he understands and restates it in terms that will solidify the concept in his mind.  He gets very professorial, and he does this gesture with his hands when he's feeling most emphatic.  His palms are up, and it's like he's serving you his wisdom on a plate.  It's pretty funny.

Violet must have heard us chatting through the walls, because about 20 minutes later, we heard her call, "Mahhh-meee!"

I tried in vain to get both kids to come back to bed and snuggle with me so I could get a few more minutes of rest, but they both insisted on going downstairs to play.  I knew it wasn't going to be very long before Violet started yelling that she wanted to eat, but it was so funny to eavesdrop on them playing so sweetly together.  Still half-asleep, I kept hearing Jack say, "Violet, do you want to...?" before he'd introduce his latest scheme.  Violet would usually say, "Yeah!"  Then I'd hear quiet as they conspired before Violet would say, "Let me do it!" And then: "I did it!"

Listening to them brought to a mind a really lovely memory.  Jack has a friend from preschool, C, whose mom just had a baby boy in June.  She is one of those puzzling creatures who choose to not find out if they are having a boy or a girl before the birth.  We recently had a park playdate with her and her boys (the baby was her third son).

I asked her if the big boys were happy that they had a little brother.

She said they were, but she added this: "You know, it was funny.  All throughout the pregnancy, the boys said they wanted the baby to be a boy.  But one day, C came home from preschool and told me, 'I think it would be kind of nice to have a girl. And if we have a girl, I want to name her Violet.'  I asked him why, and he said, 'Because Jack has a Violet, and she is so cute and he just loves her so much.'"

As I was half-snoozing, basking in this beautiful reverie, I felt myself being pulled to consciousness by a little voice insistently calling, "Mahhh-meee! I'm huuunnn-greeee!"

I dutifully got up and went downstairs to prepare my children some breakfast.  I was greeted by the pleasant sight of them playing so companionably, side by side on the floor of the playroom.  It was almost worth the loss of sleep.

I am now off to enjoy this last day of summer with my wonderful kids.