Civilized Morning

As the days get longer, and the morning light comes through our bedroom window sooner, I find myself able to get out of bed a little earlier and easier. This morning it was about 6:45 when I got out of bed. Riley was still sleeping, so I figured I'd attempt to have a civilized morning. I put on a pot of coffee and waited for it while I made up Riley's bottles for the day (as an aside, this month is the last month of both formula and bottles -- he graduates to milk and sippy cups on his 1st birthday at the request of his teachers). He was still asleep when the coffee was ready, so I poured myself a cup and sat down to watch a little of the Today Show (which I never get to do because we do not allow Riley to watch TV yet). I enjoyed about 10 minutes of this before Riley woke up. After he'd been changed, I set him down in his little "Riley" chair and gave him his bottle, which he drank while I folded laundry and finished my cup of coffee. I know this doesn't sound like much, but I felt like I had everything under control this morning, which doesn't happen often.

The reason this was such an usual situation is that before Friday, we did not realize that Riley was capable of drinking the bottle by himself. I'm not even sure how the topic came up, but somehow I discovered that Riley was drinking unassisted at school. Upon further questioning, I was told that not only was he drinking by himself, but that he had been doing it for over TWO MONTHS!!!!!!!!!! Little guy has totally been scamming us, acting like he needed help drinking his bottle. I'm not sure how an 11-month-old (or really a 9-month-old since it's been happening for a few months) can outsmart both of his parents, but sure enough, upon giving him the bottle and stepping away so that he knew I would not be cradling him in my arms and feeding it to him, he drank away (incidentally, it was SO cute!!!!).

I was proud, not only of the fact that he can feed himself, but truthfully for knowing that either (a) he is smarter than we give him credit for or (b) still preferred to have that special time with mommy and daddy even though he knew how to drink on his own.

I was also a bit embarrassed that we had been conned for so long.

Either way, I wonder if these "civilized" mornings will be a regular occurrence now.