As sometimes happens, Landis stumbled into our bed in the wee hours of the morning for some Monni and Daddy snuggles. We woke up a few hours later, and Landis was in the sweetest mood ever. I gave him a hug and a kiss and started to get up. He grabbed my hand and said "Monni, stay here. I love you too much!"

How could I resist? Landis and I snuggled for a few more minutes, then played with his stuffed animal, George, who had come to the big bed with Landis in the middle of the night. After a while, Landis was ready to jump out of bed and start his day. He has been in the best mood all morning long.


A few years ago, just before Landis turned 1, we went to the Florida La Leche League Conference. One of the speakers used the metaphor that everyone has a "cup" that needs to be filled every day with love and affection and attention, and that many times a child will misbehave to get attention - even negavive attention- if that cup is not filled with positive attention by their parents. He said one of the best things a parent could do to make the whole day better was to spend a little while in the morning filling up their child(ren)'s cup by giving them a few minutes of completely undivided attention.

I've definitely noticed that our days run smoother when Landis and I spend some time together fist things in the morning, before I start to get busy and distracted by making breakfast and washing dishes and folding laundry and checking email and writing grocery lists and all of the other busyness of day to day life. I think we may have to make morning snuggle time a regular part of our routine!