Dawn at Das Langhaus Part I “The Rousing and the Meal”

I am fortunate in the fact that I don’t have to be at work until 9am. I am unfortunate in the fact that since I don’t have to be at work until 9am, I have to stay until 5pm. While this time spot fulfills the normal 8 hour work day requirement (which I have no problem in that obligation) it forces me to hit rush hour traffic and all the intricate idiotic parade of people who find it much more important to make as many calls or send as many texts from point A to point B as possible, instead of making it from point A to point B without swerving, wrecking, and destroying the world and all those who inhabit it.

However, this minor, though life-threatening inconvenience is thoroughly offset by my morning routine. You see I get to be the master of the morning. I like to think that without me, my family would go blindly into the day’s events without fuel or focus. Conceded? Yes. True. Well……….maybe. Ok, probably not.

Anyway, my morning task begins with rousing my daughter. This is usually a good indication of how the morning is going to flow. It’s like opening door A or B on “Let’s Make a Deal.” Will it be the shiny new 1978 Ford Pinto, or the 4-day-old bowl of porridge from the Broadway Musical “Goldie Locks and the Three Bears”??? If Madi sits up smiles and pops out of bed, we’re off to a good start and hopefully a pain free morning. If there is an assortment of groans, grumbles, and occasional tears, God be with us because things are not looking bright.
Next, I take a couple of minutes to get myself partially ready and then move to 3 year old Ethan’s room, which is an adventure for Indiana Jones and Lara Croft to tackle as a team. The plethora of waking reactions from this child is a mathematical nightmare for the finest of scientists, ranging anywhere from him leaping out of bed in fifth gear ready for anything, to the reaction I got yesterday. Pulling the covers back over his blond head of Hair Fairy visited hair he grumbles in his low voice, “Go way Daddy, I sleepin’.” I oblige by heading for the kitchen to make breakfast for everyone.

Coffee for the adults, juice, milk, or on the special occasion, “chocolate milk”, is poured for all to enjoy followed by cereal, oatmeal, waffles, eggs, bacon…whatever has been decided on as the morning meal. This is usually the time Shannon emerges from our bathroom looking beautiful for her day of work, Madison comes from her room dressed and ready for school, and Ethan comes one of two ways to the kitchen: either running in Usain Bolt like fashion, or still groggy dragging from a hard night of Professional Sleep Fighting.

The meal is usually consumed without incident, lunches are packed, kisses given and Shannon and Madison head out the door for school. Leaving me to finish getting ready for work with Ethan. Here’s where things get funny…but that’s for another day.