Single parents should get medals for valor and Olympic-level strength and endurance.  This is my first day of a two and one-half day gig, and I am exhausted.   As a rule, I do not consider it morning until the sun has risen.  But, I had to get up at 6am — which is, I note PRE-dawn — in order to wake my adorable sleeping child at 6:30.  He is a morning slacker like me.  He hates getting out of the warm comfy bed during the week (but 6am is noooooo problem on the weekends).  He would not budge.  I had to open the window.  I had to turn on the lights.  I had to tickle him.  Then, I jumped on top of him in a (gentle) body slam.  Still, he resisted.  So, I did something worse than anything else — I started to sing at the top of my lungs as I dragged him out of bed.  Well, that did it.  My voice can make my 7.5 year-old cry out in anguish.  (Hey, I say, if you got a gift, use it.) 

The rest of the morning went smoothly as my child went through the motions with a horror-stricken look on his face.

He and I will be so glad when Mommy comes home from her business trip in California.