Beaniebaby, and her Little Brother: Morning snuggles.

Morning is by no means my favourite part of the day. I'll be the first to admit that I've never been one to jump out of bed singing a happy tune, ready and eager to start the day. (You see, I used to be one of those people that had no problem sleeping 10-12 hours a day....But that was before children, and so, so long ago.) A lot has changed since those days.

I now wake up most days (although I don't necessarily get out of bed immediately), between 5 and 7am. What makes this god-awful early time a little bit more bearable, is my lovely children. Alejandro usually joins us in our bed first for his morning feed, then Bella wakes up all bed-heady and with sleepy eyes, and crawls in next to Alex so that she can snuggle and kiss him. (And if we're lucky, we'll get a few snuggles from Ysabella, too.) To hear Bella say: "Good morning, Alex! How did you sleep last night? Did you have any nice dreams?" while snuggling and kissing him, is by far, the absolute best part of my day. And Alex gives nothing but big smiles when he sees his big sister coming in for kisses and hugs. I love this time.

Occasionally, Bella will sleep in. And when I say 'sleep in', what I really mean is that she will sleep until 730am. On those rare occasions, I will pick Alex up and carry him into Bella's bedroom, and I will sit Alex next to Ysabella's head so that he can be the one to wake her. He says good morning to her by screeching with excitement at the sight of her, sucking her nose (or cheek, or forehead, or ear, whatever the case may be...) and always by pulling her hair. She is never angry at this. She always wakes up happy and excited that we have joined her in her bed for a change.

Alex is quite the little Grabby McGrabby (his new nickname, courtesy of Ysabella). He will pull and tug on everything he can get his hands on; glasses, hair, hats, toys, clothes, jewelry, blankets... and he's not gentle, either. (Somehow, Bella never did this as a baby.) He particularly loves to pull hair. We have somehow managed to convince Bella that when he pulls her hair, what he's really saying is: "Bella, I love you!". Man. He must really love her a lot. Yet somehow, she's never angry at him, and she is always patient until we can free her from his tiny, yet strong clutches.

"Good morning, sister. Let me grab your face! (Remember, I love you!)"