My early risers

Lately I've been noticing that the boys are getting up earlier and earlier. Andrew finally confessed that after he gets tucked in bed at night he secretly opens the blinds so that the sun would wake him up as soon as it arose. But this week Andrew woke up at 4:45am! Recently, his early morning risings include a trip to the bathroom, of course with the bathroom door open. The lights and sounds will wake the dead from a hard sleep. Then he proceeds to close all the bedroom doors and sneak to the living room to watch Playhouse Disney. After much deliberation I realized that he was truly awake and not wanting to go back to bed. So what do you let a 5 yr. old do for hours while you go back to bed? My answer was watch tv. Hours later, after the rest of the family awoke, Ada arrived, went back to bed, and awoke again, the tv was turned off and Andrew has watched 4 hours STRAIGHT of tv. There were obvious signs that his morning played out like this. His attention span was short. He had a hard time following directions completely and by 4:00pm he was dead asleep on the couch. A few hours nap, then dinner and back to bed for the night followed. Even a few days later now, his sleep cycle is still off. Next time he wakes up that early, I'll be tucking him back into bed even if I have to carry his 50 lb. body back in to it.