I have furry creatures who are my alarms. They jump on my chest, go nose to nose, and give me the look, like "You up yet? Good. Feed me!"

Okay, you've convinced me. Today I'm combining lunch with Parent/Teacher conferences and I've just decided to include a side trip to the animal shelter to see if they've got another kitten I can't live without. Not only do we need better alarms in the house, I'm gonna need something to cheer me up after that conference!

Two very effective "alarms": diuretics, and dogs (or cats)

My 9 month old is up before 5:30 every morning. I hate to admit it, but I like it--it gets me going earlier in the morning. I actually get some time to relax and play with the kiddos before leaving for work. Before children, I would try to get up early and then fall back into the old routine of sleeping until the last possible moment.

WAIT A MINUTE!! This post is supposed to be frivolity and I'm talking about waking up. OK, here is some frivolity from The Wiggles (my two year old's favorite show)...

INTRO


Fruit salad…Yummy, yummy.

Fruit salad…Yummy, yummy.

Fruit salad…Yummy, yummy.

Yummy, yummy, yummy, yummy, fruit salad


VERSE ONE

Let’s make some fruit salad today, its fun to do it’s a healthy way.

Take all the fruit that you want to eat, it’s gonna be a fruit salad treat.

“The first step,” peel your bananas.

“The second step,” toss in some grapes.

“The third step,” chop up some apples, chop up some melons, and put them on your plate.

VERSE TWO

Now we’ve made it its time to eat it, it tastes so good that you just can’t beat it.

Give everyone a plate and a spoon; we’ll all be eating it very soon.

“The first step,” eat up the banana.

“The second step,” eat up some grapes.

“The third step,” eat up some apples, eat the melons, now there’s nothing on your plate.


VERSE THREE

Now we’ve had our fruit salad today, it’s time to put the scraps away.

Wash the bowls and wash the spoon, let’s do it all again real soon.


OUTRO

Fruit salad…Yummy, yummy.

Fruit salad…Yummy, yummy.

Fruit salad…Yummy, yummy.

Yummy, yummy, yummy, yummy, fruit salad.

Fruit salad…Yummy, yummy.

In the spirit of the DOW, are there alternate words to "fruit salad"? (Perhaps beginning: "Adult beverage…Yummy, yummy.")

WARNING-for those easily offended--this is a little off-color

"Middle Aged Blues Boogie" by the Uppity Blues Women

Well I was looking round and checking out my very best friends
Seems that they'd all taken up with the young young men...

Seems that when you reach around middle age

You don't want a final chapter, you want to write another page...

I need a young man, to drive away my middle-age blues

Well seems like men my age are all married, boring or tied
You got to find a young man if you want to feel desired...

Now some of my friends is worried 'bout what people may say,

I say age ain't nothin' but a number the good lord made it that way...

I need a young man, to drive away my middle-age blues

You know he can get it up and he can get on down
He'll help you do the dishes, take you out on the town...

He'll let you navigate cause he ain't worried 'bout seniority

You can tell him where to put it, keeping you happy is his priority

I need a young, young man,
I need a young, young man,

I need a young, young man, to drive away my middle-age blues

Well i'll forget about my arthritis, my backache, my lumbago
That young man makes me tango at the horizontal disco

I'm cleaning out my closet, I'm no longer sentimental

Forget about experience, I'd rather have potential

A young man to drive away my middle age blues

Well, I don't need no reefer, I don't need no cocaine
All I need is a young man to drive me insane...

I'm throwing away my dustmop, got a brand new vacuum cleaner...

I'm no longer taken for granted, my young man's sexy but sweeter...

A young, young man, to drive away my middle-age blues

An old woman don't yell
An old woman don't tell
An old woman don't swell
An she's grateful as hell

I need a young, young man,
I need a young, young man,

I need a young, young man, to drive away my middle-age blues

An old woman don't yell
An old woman don't tell
An old woman don't swell
An she's grateful as hell

I need a young, young man,
I need a young, young man,

I need a young, young man, to drive away my middle-age blues


Age ain't nothin but a number
Age ain't nothin but a number
Age ain't nothin but a number

Age ain't nothin but a number

And like a rare wine, you don't get older, you just get better...

Give me a young young man...

and she's grateful as hell
I need a young, young man
to drive away my middle-aged blues."

Enough about your kids already.

I don't have any kids. You must have been sending this to someone else.

I have cats.

He was definitely speaking of you...read your previous post and give it some thought. At first I thought it was a rude comment. But I have never known this poster do be rude, so I read your post and got the joke.

I too thought A.D.'s comment pretty funny!!!!

What did you think about the Middle-Aged Woman Blues? Not that you are middle aged. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

I guess I don't get it. When I think back to any of my friends' kids or my childhood, I can't ever remember the parents being woke up to feed them or me. Usually, you wake up Ma and Dad to tattle on a sibling.

I was focusing on the furry little critters myself.

I have those! 2 cats who decide 4.30am is a good time to stand on mama and put cold noses on warm nose and demand to be fed.... If cold noses don't work, sharp claws to the mouth do.

Why can't pets understand the switch from daylight to standard time?

Geez - I guess my cat is well trained. Either that, or I am "SO-not-a-morning-person" that he has given up.

Cat sits on the floor and waits until I get up. Even funnier is that sometimes I get up early for something and then go back to bed for the "5-more-minutes" routine. The cat does not even bother getting up until he's sure I'M really up!

Of course, he gets back at me by unraveling all the toilet paper on the roll........

OR the concept of Saturday morning sleep-ins. Or holidays.

Don't you get it? They do understand. Just like they understand you don't want them to sleep on top of your new car. Just like they know that just when you get comfortable on the couch is not the time you want to let them outside. Just like they know that you want them to decide if they are coming inside or not when you are standing with the door open and its cold outside. Just like they know that you don't want them to use your couch as a scratching pole. Should I continue....

WHERE IS EVERYBODY!!! This is the slowest Friday Frivolity we have ever had!!!!

Monday's a holiday - oops I didn't mean to get that started again!!!

Sorry, I overslept and missed the frivoloty
Just kidding
But I have inadvertently gotten some extra sleep before because my alarm has been know to not wake me up- but it would wake up my 4 year old son in the next room. So he would come into my room, TURN THE ALARM OFF, and go back to sleep. Not exactly a morning person.

You must be a deep sleeper if the alarm in your room is waking up children in another room. Either that or your cat has scratched the walls until they are paper thin.

In reply to:

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Why can't pets understand the switch from daylight to standard time?

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Because it's SO hard to reset the time on a watch with paws.

Ha! Love it!

Also hard to set a watch when you really need glasses but are too darn stubborn to admit you do! (That'd be me!)

In reply to:

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2 cats who decide 4.30am is a good time to stand on mama and put cold noses on warm nose and demand to be fed.... If cold noses don't work, sharp claws to the mouth do.

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Ever heard of closing the door to your bedroom? But then again, they could figure out what my two cats have - how to rattle the bottom of the door long enough on Saturday mornings to irritate me until I get up to feed them. It usually starts in around 7am, when I really like to stay in bed until 8am that one day of the week.