When he opens his eyes, it’s just light enough to see the ceiling.  The red square on the wall.  The floppy pillowcase corner brushing his forehead.  Looking left is brighter than looking right.  Same as every morning. Good.

He’s calm.  First thing in the morning he's always calm.  He can lie there on his back and stare at the ceiling and do nothing.  He feels skin contact with daddy or mommy or both and he feels safe and needs nothing. Eventually he stretches, a big one, a massive one that arches his back, until only his butt and the crown of his head are touching the mattress.  This causes him to roll to the side and come face to face with one of his sleeping parents.

If it’s mommy he reaches out and gently pats her lips and nose.  If it’s daddy he indulges his recent fascination with facial hair, and extends a single middle finger toward the chin.  He pokes the brittle facial hairs gently, watching how they behave.  

He relaxes and rolls onto his back again.  He stares at the ceiling.  He blows his lips out “bbbbbbb bbbbbbbbb bbbbbbbbb” because hey that feels good.  He moves his limbs randomly, pulling his legs into the air and dropping them back to the bed.  By chance his left hand comes into contact with his left foot, so he grabs it.  Now he’s got a toy: when he pulls his left hand the left foot comes with it, and that feels kind of funny so he does that for a while.  

He turns his head side to side.  This is another new hobby.  There’s a gyroscope in my head!  For the trick to work the head has to be whipped very quickly left and right.  He checks it every day to be sure the trick still works.  Left, right, left right: yup, still dizzy.  He’s noticed that when he does this around mommy and daddy they get very excited and start saying the same word over and over.  He’ll have to think more about that later. 

Suddenly he realizes he’s the only one moving.  What's going on?  Neither mommy nor daddy has made any motion for five minutes.  It could be they're just sleeping, but maybe they’re dead!  The thought fills him with terror. A look of fear spreads across his face, and in seconds he is crying. 

That does the job.  Mommy wakes up, or half wakes up.  A nipple goes into his mouth, and it's like someone flipped off a robot: his eyes drop closed and all his floppy limbs go limp.  Everyone gets another half hour of sleep.