Rise and Shine

From the first day that Kaia came home with us from the birth center—and it was within hours after the delivery (3:57 am) that we were home (7:30 am)—he has slept in our bed with us. Sleeping together is something that we do as an important part of our approach to parenting, and while it has had its challenges from time to time with perpendicular sleeping and night waking, the pleasures of night cuddling and the intimacy that you share with your child during sleep cannot be replaced. I am sorry for parents who miss out on this time. Space here should not be wasted on my opinion about the conventional (how did it become so mainstream when it is a truly radical method!?!) western “cry-it-out” approach to children’s sleeping that isolates children from a young age in another room. This is for another post all together. But back to co-sleeping with Kaia, we have slept in all sized beds in many conditions. In Japan we spread out over the 8 mat tatami floor with three full-sized futons every night that dwarfed any king-sized bed. Here in India, we have a king mattress, but since we’re still waiting on a bed frame and bedroom furniture that we’re having made here in India, the bed is on the floor and perfect for a 2 year old to jump on and roll off of.

Generally speaking, Kaia goes to bed at 9:30 pm and wakes up around 7:00 am. It is a good 9½ hours and, while he used to wake up numerous times over the night, he will only get up for a drink of water now and then. It is a nice routine, frequently interrupted by evenings out, but quite regular. I have found that there is a direct relationship between the time that he gets up and the time that he goes down for the afternoon nap, which is usually around 1:30 pm. Anytime after 7:30 am, and its 2:00 pm or later. Anytime before 6:30 am, and he’s falling asleep in his lunch.

Before the lights go out, there is a good hour of reading to be done. In the photo above you can see the mess of books that we wake up to every morning. One of the ‘little rules' that I have for myself with him is that, if he ever asks me to read to him, I must stop what I am doing—whatever I am doing—and sit with him. I know that this time will pass so quickly, that, while it is great for his development, it is maybe more for me not to miss out. Anyway, my wife will read some Japanese books to him and I’ll read the English, and usually later than sooner, he’s ready to go to sleep….but this post is about waking up…

One of the great pleasures about living in the country are the sounds. Every morning, at about 7:00 am, a man on a bike rides through our neighborhood droning “peaahpaah, peaahpaah”. First thinking that he was saying something in Tamil, it took me some time to figure out what he was saying—paper. He is calling for people who are throwing away cardboard and other heavy paper items to give it to him, and then he can take it to recycle and collect the return. Anyway, this has emerged as Kaia’s alarm clock—the paper man. In the photo above, he has just heard the call for recycling and is easing into the day.

Like many children, Kaia has developed an attachment to particular items of clothing. During the day, the piece in demand is the “surfer tanktop” that my sister recently gave him, but during the night it is one of two “digger peejays” that you just cannot peel off of him before breakfast. The only way that I can get them off of him is by telling him that we need to keep them clean for sleeping. For some reason this makes sense to him in a way that “nighttime clothes” and “daytime clothes” does not. Again, he’s modeling them in the photo above.

After some rolling around in the bed and some stretching (I’ve been up for 2 or 3 hours by the time he’s up) its off to pitter-patter and see what’s for breakfast. Recently he’s been crazy for curd (yogurt) and jam.

Why I Love this Time: He recently said his first true sentence—“Kimi brought this jam”—in reference to some jam that our friend Kimio brought from the Asian Rural Institute (the community in which we were living before coming to India) in Japan.