Yesterday morning I convinced Genevieve to go upstairs to awaken her oldest brother at 11:00am. (It’s vacation and my 14 year-old has spent most of the last two days sleeping, eating, reading some, practicing trumpet some, biking on his BMX bike and then more sleeping and eating.) I thought maybe a wake-up call from the youngest and cutest might go over better than my usual “Rise and Shine” script.

As suggested, Gigi ventured upstairs quietly and gently knocked on her brother’s partially closed door. “It’s time to wake up, Max,” she cooed. “Are you having bad breath this morning?”

Max woke up giggling instead of growling – a rarity… and a nice thing to hear on a Tuesday morning.