Magic Mornings Lamp

Sera, like many toddlers, is an early riser. On many a morning she calls out for mommy or daddy ready to play as early as 6:30am. One of her first questions of the day is often "is it morning now?" Inside I'm screaming 'no its not morning! It's the middle of my rem dream cycle you monster!!!' and all the while I'm smiling and taking goofy crusts out of my eyes and cooing 'yes honey, good morning to you!' 

It's not her fault she's up early. Between daylight savings and seasons constantly changing its no wonder she's confused, as soon as light hits her poorly installed blackout curtains she's up. Its about time she gets some morning sleep training (and mommy gets a few more minutes of sleep).How can we explain this new idea to Sera so she'll understand?  Cue Our very own brand-new homemade "magic mornings lamp".  

There are a few gadgets on the market that already provide this function. There's the gro-clock, bunny clocks, monkey clocks, even princess clocks... But I'd didn't really feel like spending 30euros on another 'baby' gadget with a very limited lifespan and I certainly didn't want to wait the weeks it would take for me to track a suitable model down here in Milan or to wait for delivery.  Instead I decided to go down the DIY route again and make one myself. Here's your how to...

What you'll need:

• one electrical automatic lights timer. Ikea does a pack of 2 of these babies for under five euro!
• one lamp. This can be a lamp you're already using in the room or something you have lying around the house or something new. I finally found a way to up cycle an old Ikea lamp I had in storage for a new and very worthy purpose.

To do:

Go ahead and set the timer to be off all day and on for the half-hour around when you want your child to wake. I chose to setup a separate lamp from the one we use in the evenings because that way I don't  have to play around with the settings of e timer every evening.  You can then show the lamp to your child and explain that mom and dad sleep until morning and sometimes when you wake its hard to tell if its morning or not.  With the new 'magic mornings lamp' she can know if its morning or not. If the lamp is off when she wakes, it's too early to call mom and dad, but she can play or read. If the lamp is on she can wake mom and dad.  The great thing is that you get to set the time the lamp turns on just by setting the timer.

The big question is will this work in the long run? I sure hope so. If you do try it as well let me know how it goes for you in your family.  Sweet dreams and magical mornings to you all!

PS I customised my lamp with the forest scene and birds using permanent markers directly on the glass. Get creative and upcycle!