I am an early riser. I love that sneaky time before anyone else is up and you can imagine what life must have been like before cars. I love the freshness of the air and the promise of possibilities. The Hindu’s believe the early morning is the most sacred because it is when God is closest to earth.
When our kids were born I stopped liking the early morning so much because it wasn’t my choice anymore. After having been up half the night, 5AM was not my sneaky alone time, rather the fourth shift.
And then we moved to London and the 5 hour time difference to my in-laws, or the 8 hour time difference to my mom’s made 5 AM feel like mid day.
What do you do when you are wide awake at 3AM with a 4 year old and an 8 year old in a house of sleeping elderly parents?
The pajama adventure was born.
Our mornings went like this:
3 – 4 AM We would lie in bed and have sneaky chats in the dark about what we wanted to do that day, how excited we were to be with Grandma and Grandpa. What was happening RIGHT NOW back at home. But the rule was, stay in bed.
4 - 5 AM Small light on, quiet book reading. Sometimes a nap!
5 AM Enough already. We have bed sores and are BORED and going nuts being quiet.
Out the door, in pajamas. It started because I never had enough forsight to lay out clothes the night before But then the boys and I decided life is a whole lot more exciting if you are doing something a bit unexpected, and wearing your pajamas outside fits the bill.
Places we have been at 5 AM in pajamas:
• Playgrounds. Not much competition for the good swings.
• Beaches. Have you ever watched the steam rise from a Vermont pond at the sunrise?
• Other people’s gardens. There is a lot of wild lawn art out there. Go count the cement frogs!
• Swimming. Hotel pools usually open at 6AM
• Grounds of historical landmarks. Yes, that was us in pajamas on Abraham Lincoln's front lawn at 5:37 am
• Adventure walks. Stick the word Adventure in front of anything and it becomes a whole lot more interesting. These Adventure Walks would be around the block but who knew what you would find!
One rule: Pajama adventures always end at the local donut shop. Who else is open that early?
Tricks for Getting Kids Over Jet Lag Quickly
1. Stay awake as long as humanly possible. Go to bed at the local time.
• A well placed new toy can be worth an hour.
• Avoid television – out in five minutes, especially if a couch or comfortable chair is involved.
• A bath! Not only does it get rid of the nasty airplane feeling/smell it can change at attitude and increase energy level. Warning: do not leave a jet lagged kid alone in the bathtub, even if they are 5/6 and use to taking a bath alone. I have had a kid fall sleep in the tub!
2. Switch your watch and your conversation so it makes sense to local time.
Eat meals at the local time.
Go to bed at the local time.
3. When kids wake up too early, do quiet, boring things in the hopes they go back to sleep in the first couple of hours.
Monday 29 June 2009
403 boxes of our lives
Pickford’s Moving Company just pulled away from the curb. They were here for 4 days to pack up our lives into 403 boxes and then for one day to move them into a sea-tight metal container. The contanier will reappear at our storage facility in 4 to 6 weeks, unless the ship sinks. I wonder what – or if - I would miss much?
As I look over the 14 pages of inventory that catalogues the 403 boxes I am amazed by:
1. How quickly your life can be put in a box – or at least the stuff. The bigger question of course is how many boxes of memories have I collected over the past 6 years. Memories are a lot cheaper to move, and they don’t strain your back to move around. I can hear the truck down on the loading dock backing up, “beep beep beep, incoming pallet of memory boxes, remember, lift with your legs, not your back!”
2. I married a Jewish guy and we have 5 boxes of Christmas decorations but only half a box with menorahs, haggadah’s and a plastic Seder plate.
3. Josh at 11 years old has 18 boxes of stuff; Simon at 7 years has 6. Is there some sort of algorithm that works out an estimation of accumulation by year of life?
4. All we need for the year of our life in the RV fits in 8 suitcases - and half of that we can live without.
5. How often I salivate thinking about the ship being abducted by pirates. What is the resale value on the Somalian black market for vats of legos? Crate and Barrel dining room chairs? 47 stuffed animals?
6. How much money, time and energy are spent on the transference of stuff -- moving it from store to home to shelf to box to container to storage facility to new home, etc..
7. All of the pioneers, immigrants and refugees that have moved by either choice, fear, force, love, or war. How lucky am I to be moving by choice, with options...
But what I can’t put in a box are my friends. The walks on the Heath that seem so natural. The smell of the roses. The green grocer on the high street that sells the bags of tomatoes for 1 pound. The sneaky walkways that make getting around this city so delightful and old worldly.
More for the memory box in my mind where there is always room and there is no charge for additional weight.
As I look over the 14 pages of inventory that catalogues the 403 boxes I am amazed by:
1. How quickly your life can be put in a box – or at least the stuff. The bigger question of course is how many boxes of memories have I collected over the past 6 years. Memories are a lot cheaper to move, and they don’t strain your back to move around. I can hear the truck down on the loading dock backing up, “beep beep beep, incoming pallet of memory boxes, remember, lift with your legs, not your back!”
2. I married a Jewish guy and we have 5 boxes of Christmas decorations but only half a box with menorahs, haggadah’s and a plastic Seder plate.
3. Josh at 11 years old has 18 boxes of stuff; Simon at 7 years has 6. Is there some sort of algorithm that works out an estimation of accumulation by year of life?
4. All we need for the year of our life in the RV fits in 8 suitcases - and half of that we can live without.
5. How often I salivate thinking about the ship being abducted by pirates. What is the resale value on the Somalian black market for vats of legos? Crate and Barrel dining room chairs? 47 stuffed animals?
6. How much money, time and energy are spent on the transference of stuff -- moving it from store to home to shelf to box to container to storage facility to new home, etc..
7. All of the pioneers, immigrants and refugees that have moved by either choice, fear, force, love, or war. How lucky am I to be moving by choice, with options...
But what I can’t put in a box are my friends. The walks on the Heath that seem so natural. The smell of the roses. The green grocer on the high street that sells the bags of tomatoes for 1 pound. The sneaky walkways that make getting around this city so delightful and old worldly.
More for the memory box in my mind where there is always room and there is no charge for additional weight.
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