Gardner is a funny little kid. We have a morning ritual together. When Gardner gets up he plays in his crib for about 15 minutes or so by himself. When I do go in to get him up he is always happy to see me, but likes to play games.
I ask Gardner if he would like to get up and rather than stand up he throws his head into his favorite blanket. He buries his head as deep as he can go. I stand over the side of the crib and say, "Gardner is asleep!" followed by, "Gardner is awake!" When I say awake he pops his head up and then I repeat it. "Gardner is asleep!" He buries his head again. It makes me laugh and eventually I start tickling his leg and he giggles uncontrollably fighting to get away from my claw grasp.
No matter how rushed I am in the morning, I always take time to engage in a little playtime when I get him out of bed. I know it won't last forever. I treasure this ritual and on days I have to leave the house before he gets up I miss it. I know that when he eventually outgrows the crib he will start getting himself out of bed.
While I do look forward to the day where I can get a few extra minutes of sleep, for now this ritual is something I look forward to every morning. It starts my day with a smile. The rest of the day is usually pretty hectic, frantically driving to the bus stop to get to work, but thinking about this moment means the world to me.