Time Change

Since having kids, the annual "Fall back" time change just hasn't been the same.  There's no more "sleep in an extra hour before Sunday school!"  now it's:  "please go back to sleep, it's only 5am!!"  I still remember the Sunday morning when Lena was a baby.  I had to teach adult education all morning at WRT, and Lena decided to wake up at 4am that day.  I told the class, in my haze, that my baby didn't get the memo about setting the clocks back an hour.  It took her weeks to get back to her normal 5/5:30 wakeup routine.

Monday morning Lena ran in at 6am, saying "The juice box turned into a 7!!"  (for those of you who don't know what I'm talking about, apparently the 6 on her clock reminds her of a juice box, and she knows it's time to get up when it becomes a 7.  If she complies she gets a sticker on her chart every morning.  I've gradually been making her clock later and later to ease the morning transition... didn't help so much though).  I asked her, "did the juice box really turn into a 7? Go check." Apparently she's also learning how to lie, but that's the subject of another blog...

Time is a funny concept for little children.  Sometimes Lena seems to understand a minute, ten minutes, thirty minutes (FOREVER!!).  But the passing of time, and how to explain it to her continues to be a mystery most of the time.  We're going skiing when it starts to snow, after Thanksgiving.  Tom (the au pair) is staying until the spring, when Lena's birthday is.  I try to tie long-awaited things to something concrete that means something in her life. 

But what about more difficult things?  What if she's worried about Mommy and Daddy dying?  I would try to reassure her that Mommy and Daddy wouldn't die for a long, long, long time-- until she was all grown up and didn't need us anymore.  But what does a long long time mean to a 3.5 year old?  Until after her next birthday?  After Mikaela starts walking? 

It's astounding, time is fleeting
Madness takes its toll
But listen closely, not for very much longer
I've got to keep control...


Let's do the time warp again!! 

Here's to "Spring ahead" when we get that hour back...