Good Morning . . . ?

I think I finally put my finger on it this morning, on what makes the mornings so challenging and often unpleasant around here: there is just no warm-up period for the kids. Let me explain.

See, I'm admittedly not much of a morning person. I need some time after I wake up to slowly rejoin the world of consciousness (and to decide if I'm happy to be there or not), to get my thoughts in order, get a handle on my mood, and so forth. A transition period from sleeping to waking to functioning.

The kids, on the other hand, have no apparent need or desire for any such warming-up period in the morning. They go from dead sleep to wide awake and raring to go in about one-ninth of a second. Often they are up before my alarm even goes off in the morning, standing by my bedside announcing that they have to go potty (so go already! why the announcement?!) and demanding breakfast. Even when I manage to beat them to it and get myself up before them and creep into the kitchen and start processing, the moment they're up, it's instant GO! NEED! DEMAND! BICKER! DANCE! CHASE EACH OTHER! SING AT THE TOP OF THEIR LUNGS!

And there are six of them! (I know, I know, I asked for this. I know. Shut up.)