Early Birds and Night Owls

I haven't used an alarm clock in years.

Thing One wakes up every morning at 6AM.  He has some kind of internal alarm.  It makes no difference what time he's gone to bed or whether the sun is up.  He has (finally) learned to be relatively quiet in getting up and going downstairs, but it took a while to get there.  It's not his fault that I still usually hear him and wake up--I have ears like a hawk after listening for three babies in the night for so many years.  (And under pain of death, he is not to go downstairs until the hour hand on his bedroom clock reaches the 6 under any circumstances!)

Thing Two wakes up between 6 and 6:30.  Unlike his brother, he can be relied upon to wake the dead.  RattleRATTLErattleRATTLE (the stairway banister) followed by the THUMPthumpTHUMPthumpTHUMPthump of clomping feet on the wooden hallway floor.  If I was not already awake, this does it.  The only blessing is that I no longer have to get up with the boys immediately.  I lie in bed, catch up with my blogs and the news on my laptop, and mentally gird my loins for another day.  When I've mustered the necessary energy, I go downstairs, see to The Hound, and get the day started.  This involves much coffee.

The Girl, like her parents, is a night owl.  (The boys take after their paternal grandfather, who is up before the birds.)  Left to our own devices, we would go to bed very late and then sleep in.  Since the whole sleeping in thing does not happen (see above), it takes the three of us a while to get going in the morning.  The Girl usually comes stumbling down the stairs around 7:15, grumbling about her brothers and their racket. 

I'm told that eventually my sons will start to sleep in.  I hear that happens when they hit the teenage years.  And I can't wait.  Why?

Because our regional high school starts its school days at 7:30.  And the school buses pick up around 6:30 out here.  I will enjoy getting to wake THEM up every day.  Payback is sweet.