Being happy...fake it till you make it!

I wake up every morning to that smiling, giggling, little baby and it truly makes my heart skip a beat...most days. It's hard for me to be giggly when I couldn't sleep the night before and the clock is telling me that it's 4am. Another night of less than 3 hours of sleep and Ava's ready to roll around and play. It usually goes something like this, "Ava, go back to sleep". "GGGGoooooooooooo" and some whining..."Sleepy time, Ava", *raspberries for 10 minutes, followed by screeches*. It's at this time that I pull her into bed with me and try to make her go to sleep by closing MY eyes. At which point she begins to pull my hair and put her fingers up my nose. "Ok, I am UP!" and I slowly move myself out of bed cursing under my breath.

It hasn't' gone unnoticed that on those days when I am feeling a bit cranky, it unfortunately tends to rub off on Ava. Her smiles turn to whines when I am not exactly a beam of morning sunshine, it even sometimes escalates into a full out tantrum by the end of the morning. So for the past couple of months, I make a VERY conscious effort to fake my enthusiasm for the morning routine when I am really dying to go back to bed.

Therefore, I smile and coo back at her and then we get up and snuggle while she eats her breakfast. Afterwards I get my cup of coffee and watch her crawl around on the floor and we play for the rest of the morning. It's amazing how I never thought about the fact that most moms with little ones always seem to be cheerful.

Now that I am a mama, I may be forced to be cheerful for all of eternity. Or at least whenever I am within earshot of Ava. Will this change my life? I think that it might. It may actually make me a happier person, or at least make me WANT to be a happier person. And that's what it all comes down to in the end, right? Being a parent doesn't mean that you are automatically a happier person, but I do think it means that you WANT to be a happier person, at least for your kids.

If it is true, that you can fake it til you make it, than I am currently being "made". And maybe someday I'll wake up smiling and giggling in the morning, anxiously waiting for AVA to get up out of bed. I may even stick my fingers up her nose so that we can start our day together:)