I made mention of the "light turning green" in the Happy Fertilizer Day! post and thought I should go into a bit more detail about this awesome little find. When Gavin was a baby he was a fantastic sleeper. He fell asleep on his own. He rarely woke during the night without being able to fall back asleep. He also would sleep in until 8:30 and sometimes 9:00 in the morning after sleeping 12-13 hours. Then he would nap 2-3 hours every afternoon. I was in heaven!

Last October I was in for a rude awakening! My dreamy sleeper showed me what life with a real kid is like. Gavin started waking to go potty almost every night. Then after his trip to the bathroom, he wanted to get up for the day. We would talk to him and explain that we had to go back to sleep until the sun woke up. He would reluctantly oblige. Then at about 5:00am he would start shouting that it was time to get up. Again we would tell him that to wait until the sun woke up. This happened every single morning. So, I was in the market for some way to help Gavin understand when it was time to get up and when it was still time to hang out in Sleepytown.

I found the Teach Me Time! Talking Alarm Clock and Nightlight. It was exactly what I was looking for. I ordered it and as soon as it arrived home I programmed it and set it up in his room. I set the clock to turn from yellow/orange at night to green at 7:00 am. Then, I showed the clock to Gavin and told him that, just like a traffic light, the light would turn green and then he could get out of bed. That day and frequently until bedtime, we talked about the light turning green and how the sun will be getting up at that time too! Then the next morning, although I heard Gavin wake up before hand, at precisely 7:00am, Gavin announced, "The light turned green! It is time to get up!"

Sweet victory! Gavin learned very quickly about when to wake up in the morning. The only issue that we are facing now is that when we taught him how to wait for the light to turn green I paired that with the sun waking up. I hadn't thought about the repercussions of daylight savings time back in October. So, now that the sun is waking up at 6:00am, so is Gavin.

I love this clock and blame myself for the green light not working for us right now. I am working on teaching Gavin that the sun wakes up very early now and that we get to sleep for a while while the sun is warming things up for us. I think that with time, we'll be back to a normal wake time.

If you are looking for a way to catch just a few more Z's with a super early riser, I recommend giving this clock a try. It also has games that can be played to help kids learn how to tell time and a button that will read the time aloud. I liked it so much that I bought a second clock for my parents house since Gavin spends the night there when we get to have a date night. I hope it works for you, too!