in the wee small hours of the morning

every afternoon, madeleine and i get about an hour of time to ourselves. just the two of us.

after an hour of quiet time (i use the term loosely), i sneak into her room and tell her that she can come out. diane, blessed child that still takes a nap, stays asleep about an hour longer than madeleine's quiet time.  as we creep out of the room, madeleine whispers to me, "i want to do something fun." those exact words pretty much every day.

and pretty much every day, she picks painting as her something fun. that girl could watercolor for hours. and since diane could eat paint for hours, it's the perfect activity to do during our one-on-one time. and as soon as we hear diane wake up, madeleine's job is to go distract her in her crib while i put away the paint supplies. we have it down to a system.

lately, i've been praying to know how i can spend more one on one time with diane. i feel like she gets neglected sometimes because she is younger and more easy going than madeleine. plus, there just hasn't been time where she is awake and madeleine isn't.

except occasionally in the morning when she wakes up before madeleine and i can sneak her out of her room without waking up madeleine. and the last few days, she has consistently woken up much earlier than madeleine. given my extreme morning fatigue recently, i have answered that opportunity by putting diane in front of an episode of sesame street and going back to bed myself.

but this morning, when i was a little bit more with it than usual in the morning, i had the strong thought that this was my answer. this is my one-on-one time with diane. really? 5:30 in the morning?

but i went with it. as we slowly turned on the dimmest lights in the house to adjust our eyes to daylight (or the lack thereof at such an hour), i crept back into madeleine's room to retrieve some puzzles. i couldn't find diane's favorite one that she carries around with her all day, so we went on a dimly lit treasure hunt and finally found it safely stowed under the kitchen table.

we spent the next hour doing three puzzles over and over. lots of quiet clapping after each one was completed and then promptly dumped over to be done again. after puzzle fest 2011, we went into the kitchen and ate cereal at the table together. one of us ate her cereal in a very dramatic manner and drank the milk afterward. it wasn't me. i never drink my milk.

and then madeleine woke up. and i put away the proverbial paint while madeleine quickly began to dominate the scene with her made up songs and long, dramatic stories. the lights came on and the curtain closed on our intimate time together.

maybe i'll get to bed at a decent hour and be up for it again tomorrow morning. it was a surprisingly pleasant way to spend the five o'clock hour.