Our kids are expected to stay in their beds and stay quiet until 7:30 in the morning.  That doesn't mean they're always asleep up until 7:30, however.  This morning, I thought it was really interesting to hear my kids explain a number of clues which indicate to them that the morning is about to start.  Here's how they know that the day is supposed to start:

1. The end of the couch becomes yellow (this couch is visible through the crack in the door to their bedroom, and it's illuminated by light from the dining room, where I usually sit as I read the Bible and do some journalling to start the day).
2. The light from the computer screen reflects from the threshhold to Elliot and Olivia's room (I usually turn on the computer in the last 5-10 minutes before the kids get up).
3. They can hear the sound of typing on the computer keyboard.
4. They can hear the sound of Dad sneezing (a bi-product of my chronic allergy issues, which always seem to be worst in the morning when my body is apparently eliminating all of its accumulated allergens from the night's sleep).

I think it's funny to hear their perspectives -- especially the fact that my nose serves as the house's rooster -- but it also feels vaguely nostalgic and sentimental to me, even though it's not even in the past yet (weird, huh?).  Hearing my children's perspective reminds me of the smell of blueberry muffins and the sound of my parents singing from when I was growing up (which I can now recall as some of the signs of the morning in our household, as I was growing up).

Blueberry muffins and singing sound a lot more romantic than the clickety-clack of a computer keyboard and a series of sneezes!  But I'm sure there were other, more mundane, signs of the morning from when I was a kid, too.  It's just that the cream of nostalgia rose to the top over time.  I'll be interested to hear my kids' perspective on signs of the morning again, 20 years from now...