Wake-up Call

Nathan woke up before me this morning. I sensed he was up. I could hear him whispering to himself about something. I felt him climb to my place of sweet rest and hover over me, to see if I was really asleep or just "playing possum". I dozed in and out of consciousness as he snuggled up close on my pillow. He would lay there quietly, occasionally whispering, "wake up, Daddy." I mumbled something like, "in a minute," which really meant, "in another twenty minutes". This was really pretty mean, as he was so eager for me to get up and start the adventures of the day with him. I felt guilty as memories of my own childhood struggles to wake my Dad to no avail were stirred. I shoved those thoughts under the pillow and tried hard to dive back into my dreamscape. I was successful for a moment.

Nathan made the decision, after about 20 minutes of gentle pursuasion, to play "hardball" with daddy. He let me doze off again and (probably calculating just the right moment) then attacked me. "You smell that, Daddy?" he said, as he shoved his freshly removed sock under my nose. "That's a stinky sock!" (It wasn't quite as bad as his sinus-drainage morning breath) I thought for a moment about enduring this onslaught of odor, as it could have been worse. (He could have grabbed one of my socks from the dirty clothes bin!) But I decided, as he released a little morning gas ("You smell that, Daddy?!"), that things could get worse if I didn't "rise and shine". (I didn't want the next item under my nose to be a used diaper!)

Have a fragrant day!