I may have met my match.

I'm one of those people everyone loves to hate.

I'm a natural early riser.  A lover of daybreak.  A (GASP!) morning person.

Getting up for school was never a problem for me as a kid.

I scheduled all morning classes in college, and was often on my way to my first or second class when most of the campus was just dragging back home from the night out.

When I started working, early morning shifts were my absolute favorites.  I was at work by 6am, bright eyed and bushy tailed every chance I got.  Closing shifts were another story entirely.  Even after 17 years I could just never seem to adjust to those.

After I quit working, I went through an adjustment period where I slept LATE (like 7am!) most days until my body's natural clock reset itself from too many different kinds of days and shifts, and then my natural tendencies took over.  Now, I wake up, unaided by alarm, at between 5:30 and 6am most mornings unless I'm hungover.

This gives me plenty of time to get out of bed, have a cup or two of coffee, check email, read blogs, catch up with Facebook and Twitter and make breakfast before Zachary has to be up and getting ready for school.

I relish my morning time.  It's my "me" time.  Some days it's the only time all day that it's completely quiet in my house.  There are no demands for snacks, no little toy cars running over the furniture, no beeping video games, no faces to wash and butts to wipe.  It's peaceful, and it's time I desperately need.

Except one day a few weeks ago, when I woke up, I could hear Cooper awake and playing in his room.  He didn't come out, he didn't try to wake anyone else up, he was just playing with his toys and having a grand old time.

However, the minute he heard me get out of bed, he was up and ready to start the day.  Ok, fine, I can deal with a one-time occurrence like this.  No problem, right?  Surely it was a fluke and he will sleep until a NORMAL hour, like 6:30, tomorrow.

Uh, nope.

The next day, I woke up and once again I could hear him playing in his room, and once again as soon as I was out of bed, so was he.

The next day, determined to have my coffee and sanity alone and intact, I set my internal alarm for 15 minutes earlier than normal.  Side note: I do have an alarm clock, and I set it every day.  It only actually goes off a few times a year - see: hangover.  But once again, Cooper was already out of bed and demanding milk and cereal and playtime before I even had a chance to sit down.

And so it went.  Every day I would get up just a little earlier, and every day, Cooper would already be awake and raring to go.

I took this picture around 5:15 one morning.  Seriously?  How can he possibly be this happy?

So at this point he and I have come to a somewhat uneasy (on my part) truce.  He can get up when I do, and then I let him eat his breakfast and drink his milk while I have a cup or three of coffee, but there is to be NO playing, NO noise and NO frolicking or fun of ANY KIND until the caffeine is flowing nicely through my veins.

So far, it's working out mostly ok.

But maybe, just maybe, it's time for me to see what this "night-owl" business is all about.