the sun is but a morning star.

-henry david thoreau, walden

at 5:51 a.m. this morning, like every saturday morning, when i heard the first stirrings from Kitten's crib i groaned to myself and silently begged her to sleep for just a few more minutes. it's hard getting up at that hour every single day.  which is why i find myself going to bed at 8:30 p.m. on a friday night.  shocking, even to me.

but like every other saturday morning, i dragged myself out of bed leaving a sleeping J behind, picked Kitten up from her crib, and took her into the living room to start our day.

by 6:30, after my english muffin and cup of coffee has kicked in and Kitten has been changed and fed a bottle, the world looks considerably brighter (both literally and figuratively), and i begin to be thankful for this time that i have with her each week, those unrushed hours between sunrise and 9:30 a.m. when aislinn goes down for her nap and J and Princess wake up and the making of blueberry pancakes or omelets begins - those in-between hours with the smell of coffee and morning air coming in through the back door screen, the sound of crosby, stills, nash, and young coming through the infinity speakers that my dad bought me in high school (lesson: you must always, always have quality speakers) and Kitten happily babbling, just the two of us.

here's a snippet of this morning, complete with dirty onesie (she played on the patio while i watered the plants and we rescued a caterpillar from death at the beaks of the birds nesting there - or at the hands of aislinn, who seriously almost ate it before i saw it).

(sorry for the formatting problem where the video window runs off the right margin; click on the video to take you straight to youtube if you want to see the whole screen.)