Wednesday, September 20, 2017
TIme to Rise and Shine Predawn Hours at the West Chester KOA
TIme to Rise and Shine Predawn Hours at the West Chester KOA
So my husband is making it sound like the most important item we forgot this past weekend was the coffee grinder. That is not true at all. The forgotten item that caused the most panic, stress, and early morning misery was my boys alarm clock. This is not the kind of alarm that is meant to get one out of bed in the morning; its primary purpose is to keep our children in their beds until a not-so-god-forsaken hour.
Let me back up a bit...
My four year olds have always been early risers, and I mean earrrrly. I did not sleep past 5:30 am for the first two years of their lives. Camping always seems to heighten their desire to greet the sunrise. I dont know if it is the fresh air or the morning songbirds, but they wake up ready to go while it is still dark out and the entire campground is still sleeping.
So we first introduced the portable DVD player when traveling in our popup. Sounds ironic, right? Get out into the great outdoors and... pop in a show for the kiddies. Well, you should only judge if you have been in a camper with extremely loud toddlers crashing around in the predawn hours. Believe me, our RV neighbors appreciated our kindness, Im sure.
Last year I got one of my favorite products ever--an alarm clock by American Innovative that changes color when the kids are allowed out of bed. When they go to sleep it looks like this:
Let me back up a bit...
My four year olds have always been early risers, and I mean earrrrly. I did not sleep past 5:30 am for the first two years of their lives. Camping always seems to heighten their desire to greet the sunrise. I dont know if it is the fresh air or the morning songbirds, but they wake up ready to go while it is still dark out and the entire campground is still sleeping.
So we first introduced the portable DVD player when traveling in our popup. Sounds ironic, right? Get out into the great outdoors and... pop in a show for the kiddies. Well, you should only judge if you have been in a camper with extremely loud toddlers crashing around in the predawn hours. Believe me, our RV neighbors appreciated our kindness, Im sure.
Last year I got one of my favorite products ever--an alarm clock by American Innovative that changes color when the kids are allowed out of bed. When they go to sleep it looks like this:
You can set it for whatever time you wish (we picked a very conservative time of 6:15 am), and then at that time the clock begins to glow green:
This works like a charm. Every morning Jeremy and I wake up to the sound of our children shouting "The light turned green!!!" as they jump into our bed and pummel us out of our early morning stupor.
Except we forgot the alarm clock this past weekend. Big, big, big oops. Jeremy had the bright idea to set his phone alarm and told the boys that they could get up when they heard the song play. Theo woke us up at 5:15 am panicking that "the song wasnt playing, the song wasnt playing."
Not one of our best ideas. But not our worst either...
The second morning we were ALL woken out of a sound sleep by the song on Jeremys phone playing. Yes, thats right: the boys were sound asleep and we woke them up at 6:15 am. Awesome work, parents.
On the next trip we may forget toothbrushes, toilet paper, or the milk boxes; but you best believe we will not be forgetting the alarm clock. Or the coffee grinder. See what makes this family tick?
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