Toddler to Teenager Overnight

Teagan went to bed a toddler and woke up (or rather didn't wake up) as a teenager. For months now, she's been waking up between 5:30 and 6:30, ready and raring to go for the day. We've been able to coax her back to bed a handful of times, but we can only recall one instance that she's still been asleep when Brandon left for work at 7:15...and even then, she woke up 15 minutes later. So, in anticipation of her birthday, we set out one present for her to open while Daddy was still here. I'm sitting at the computer, alone, at 7:20 AM, while she sleeps peacefully away upstairs.

She toddled in at 3:30 to get a drink (I always set a sippy cup on her nightstand but my water must taste better) and went back to bed. Or so we thought. Buddy heard noises about 4:30 and went to her room to find her playing around, wearing a witch's costume. He convinced her back into pajamas and back into bed, but she found us again at 5:00. So she crawled into bed with us. Buddy got up at 6:00 to shower and read scriptures so that he didn't have to spend his only morning time with us getting ready. At 6:45 (she's usually already had breakfast by now) we tried to wake her so that she could open this present.

Light bouncing on the bed, pulling out her binkie (don't judge - her world is about to be rocked and I thought she could use the familiarity) and kissing her face didn't work. We started to sing "Happy Birthday" softly to which she popped up with the world's grumpiest face and snarled, "It's not my bird day yet" grabbed her binkie back and rolled over. She's mine.

Brandon, shocked and sad, left for work before seeing her open her dollhouse. I, irritated that I could have slept in later than I have in months, showered and got dressed and did my best to enjoy this extra time I'd been blessed with. Although I wasn't spending it sleeping like I would have wanted.

She finally stumbled down the stairs at 8:07 AM. A new record. And when I started to sing "Happy Birthday" she once again told me that "It's not my bird day yet!" and then she saw the balloons and the present and accepted reality. If this is my 3 year old, it's going to be hard to make it to 4.