My kids are early risers. I don't mind getting up relatively early. I actually am a morning person. But when I put everyone down to bed at nearly 9 o'clock at night, I expect them to sleep until 7 or 8 a.m. I just believe that this is adequate sleep time for very young children. But no matter what I've tried, 6:30 seems to be my wakeup call, and that's just not OK. Matt and I spent a small fortune on expensive blackout curtains, thinking that their rooms were too bright in the mornings (Parker even has East-facing windows). But the curtains seem to make a difference. We live in a small, gated, town home community, so we wondered if noise from neighbors driving through the development to go to work in the mornings was waking the kids up. So we decided to run white noise machines in all of the bedrooms to cancel out the sound. But that didn't seem to do much either. Then there seemed to be a pattern of one of the kids waking the other one up before we could stop them, so we taught Sydnie to turn on her little bedroom tv by herself when she wakes up, instead of going and bothering her brother. Sometimes that works and sometimes it doesn't, but either way, I'm awake from hearing cartoons blare through the baby monitor. So I feel like I've exhausted all of my options. I'm tired every day, and I just want ALL of us to be well-rested and happy.

Recently, a friend told me about these clever little things that help young kids "tell time", so they know when (and when not) to get out of bed. There are quite a few options for these sleep training clocks, some more expensive than others. And some seem a little more complex to understand for my kids, or didn't get great online reviews. So after some research, I found this one: The Gro Clock. The link will take you to a UK retailer, but I've been able to find quite a few US options. I think this will really help us! I just have to wrap my head around buying TWO of them, since the kids don't share a room. But I'm sure if they work like the reviews say they do, they will be priceless.

I am so ready for our days not to start so early! I'm hopeful that there is help on the horizon though.