Winter doldrums

Vacation time is so much more fun than the reality of routine. I don't recall exactly at what young age I learned that cold, hard truth about life, but I doubt it was as early as age six. However, for my first grader, it's a lesson he definitely picked up over Christmas break.

After 11 days of sleeping in, playing hockey and enjoying new presents; Tuesday morning marked the return to way-too-early wake-up nudges and homework centered around those dreaded lists of spelling words.

Tuesday morning dawned all too soon for AJ*, especially considering he'd laid in bed until 10:30 the night before, unable to fall asleep. He'd called me in his room at one point, almost in tears, explaining that he was trying to sleep, but his mind kept thinking of things.

Recalling difficult nights of my own in junior and senior high, when I struggled to fall asleep due to irrational fears about impossibly hard homework assignments and tests, I sympathised with my son. I laid down next to him and asked him what kinds of things he was thinking about.

"Well," he began in a rather halting voice, "sometimes I think about colors."

Okay. Not the same kind of fears.

"And sometimes I think about that story we heard on the radio," he continued.

"What story?" I asked.

"That story. It was kind of scary."

"I don't know what story you're talking about," I said. "Tell me about it."

"Well," he began and then stopped. "I guess I don't really remember what it was about."

Definitely not the same kind of fears.

Surprisingly, both kids woke up with little effort and were in fairly good moods - Sydney in particular.  "I get to go to Miss Tina's class," she announced, over-enunciating each word. "And we get to do projects! But we don't get to take naps."

Hooray! School is still fun when you're four.

Alas, the early morning wake-up, combined with the lack of nap time, caught up with her early evening. She fell asleep in the car on the way to AJ's hockey practice, and - once inside the warming house - crawled up on the bench to rest while I helped AJ with this helmet and skates.

Bedtime arrived much earlier last night. Not that they climbed under the sheets any more willingly than on other nights, but they fell asleep much faster. And so it goes for another month and a half until their mid-winter break.

*Special note... AJ has reversed his earlier directive and now wants me to call him by his nickname. It's not a complete about-face. He still likes it when his friends call him Alex, he explained to me. So, for anyone reading this who doesn't fall into the category of being me or a friend, you'll have to ask him yourself what he wants you to call him.