More Shower to Ya

It started on Friday last week.  Claire started asking if she could start showering before school.  That answer was easy: NO, because it would disrupt the perfectly timed and executed morning routine that we are already in.  And me giving up 20 minutes of sleep to blow dry Claire’s hair was NOT going to happen.  I felt like we were already in a pretty good place with the morning routine:

5:42 – my alarm goes off.  I hit snooze, and continue to snooze every 7 minutes until

6:03 – alarm again, for the 4^th time.  I get up and get in the shower, get dressed, hair, make-up, yadda yadda…

6:40 – I start cooking breakfast (yes, usually there is cooking involved.)

6:50 – Claire and Chloe come downstairs

Last year, for her 5^th birthday, Claire got an alarm clock for her birthday – a nice Hello Kitty clock radio that would look nice and collect dust on her nightstand.  Soon after, Claire asked us to set it so she could wake up to the radio.  I gave her list of things to accomplish in the morning once the alarm goes off: Get up.  Bathroom.  Get Dressed (clothes laid out the night before.)  Make Bed.  Brush Teeth.  Come Downstairs.  And it has worked like a champ since day one.  She meets me in the kitchen at 6:50 ready for breakfast.  A few months ago, Chloe and Claire hatched a plan that they were going to start sleeping together, and as long as they are in bed and quiet once 8pm rolled around, I was ok with it.  (I realize this will come back to haunt me sometime in the future… Claire surely will get sick of having a little sister sleep with her.)  So now that Chloe is sleeping with Claire, I have two kids that come downstairs at 6:50 every morning – dressed and brushed.  Pretty awesome, if you ask me.

6:50 – 7:15 – eat breakfast and I do their hair.

7:20 – out the door

The morning shower bugging continued through the weekend, and we caved on Sunday night and Jason set the alarm for 6:05.  The plan was for Claire to shower while Chloe stayed in bed… ya know, like Daddy does while Mommy is in the shower?  2 minutes into my Monday morning shower, my water pressure changes.  Oh my gosh, she got out of bed and is in the shower.  At 7:40 Claire is showered, dressed, teeth brushed, bed made and standing in my bathroom wrestling my brush through her wet hair.  Amazed, I head for the kitchen as she is cranking up the hair dryer to blow dry her own hair.  Wow, quite a nice start to a Monday morning.

Wednesday night, I get another request for a morning shower, and this time it is from Chloe.  Chloe and Claire always shower together, and if everyone is in the right mood Claire does a great job helping Chloe wash up properly with no drama.  When everyone is not in a good mood, there is a TON of drama, but that is best saved for another blog post…   At 6:05, I am still lying in bed and I hear the alarm go off upstairs.  2 seconds later (how does she jump out of bed like that??  No snoozing???) Claire is demanding asking that Chloe get out of bed to get in the shower.  I think the drama is about the kick into high gear, but decide to head to my shower anyways.  Right as I finish out, Chloe walks in my room, soaking wet and wrapped in a towel. 

I can’t believe they both did it!  Chloe explains that Claire is stuck in the shower because there is a black ant on the floor just outside the shower, and Chloe had been nominated to leave the shower, survive the ant and summon a parent who could dispose of the ant.  I found the microscopic ant and sent him down the toilet, and the routine continued.  10 minutes later, 2 clean and dressed kids appeared in the kitchen.  I was actually a little tingly.

I don’t have expectations for the near future – surely they will grow tired (pun intended) of getting up 30 minutes earlier.  But with daylight savings time in full swing, longer outside play time in the evening will be tempting for them to keep it up.  No complaints here!