Sunday snuggle

I have to be to work so early, plus with all the early morning training, most days I am out of the house a couple of hours before anyone in my family even wakes up. Weekends are the exception. Saturdays are still usually busy with games and runs and errands, but I truly enjoy lazy Sunday mornings. Now that the kids are older, they can get up and head downstairs without bothering us. Sometimes I don't even hear them, but then sometimes I do, like today.
This morning, before 7 am, Em woke up and decided she wanted to listen to some music. I had just shown her how to turn on her CD player and she thought it would be perfectly fine to try it out while everyone else in the house was sleeping. Oh, the logic of a four-year-old girl. Upon hearing the music, I immediately sprang out of bed and rushed into her room to quiet the noise. Em was honestly shocked when I told her it was a bad idea to play the CD loudly while everyone else was sleeping, but she conceded and went back to snuggling with her pillow pet. Luckily, no one else was awoken by the noise, so I crawled back into bed and breathed a sigh of relief. The last thing I wanted her to do was wake E. He is usually our early morning riser, so he must have been especially tired this morning. Eventually Em grew tired of being alone in her room and wandered into ours. Since I was really awake (I rarely fall back asleep after being woken up) but just lying in bed, I motioned for Em to crawl in. She is a great snuggler, and I realized I never get a chance to do this. I am almost always the first one up. We hugged and occasionally whispered, trying our best to stay quiet. Then I heard the patter of another set of feet. E was up. On most occasions, E doesn't even bother looking in our room before heading straight downstairs to start his day, but today, for whatever reason, he did. He shyly opened the door and saw us cuddled together. We both smiled, an invitation to join us. Em and I scooted over to make way for E. He shimmied into bed and the three of us gave each other a good morning hug. Jon tried to sleep through all this, and I am sure he could have if Em wouldn't have kept talking about our 'family bed'. Because my kids are older now, I knew this was a fleeting moment. E could only take so much quiet and stillness. Em was growing anxious too. They were both complaining about being hungry. But even for a few minutes, we were all together, just enjoying eachother's company. I think I was valuing it most of all. Sunday is for the simple joy of snuggling.