KELLY BROWN Mum's the Word...Now it seems the munchkin has acquired a snooze button

But I can say with absolute certainty that I can no longer rely on my little man to wake me up in the mornings.

You notice the changes when they are babies – going from waking twice in the night, to once, and then (finally) not at all – and you celebrate.

Then for more than a year my son has woken up every single day at around 6.15am. That is until recently.

Before that his routine gave me enough time to wake up, get us breakfast, dressed and out of the door in a nice leisurely manner.

But now he is waking at 6.45am, 7am, and even 7.40am the other day, which caused me no end of panic because I was supposed to have been out of the door already!

This of course excludes weekends, when he feels an early-morning wake-up call is still needed.

I have not had an alarm clock for two years – I haven’t needed one. But this weekend I’m going to have to invest in one because my previously-reliable one has decided he wants to have a lie-in.

On the bright side, I suppose it means I can get myself back into a routine where I actually get a few minutes to myself before hearing the words ‘mummy, wake up!’ from the munchkin’s room.

With the exception of the days he takes our little man to nursery, my husband is out the door before 6am every day – something I am only ever (at the most) vaguely aware of.

He is one of those annoying morning people who can spring up with the bounce of a jack-in-the-box as soon as he is awake.

Of course that has its advantages, including cups of tea while I try to convince myself I am still asleep.

That is because I am absolutely and positively not a morning person.

I need a little time to wake up in the morning and come to terms with the fact that is all the sleep I’m going to get.

I need time not to feel tired any more before I drag myself out of bed and slowly climb into the shower in a desperate attempt to wake myself up.

And I fear my little man may end up being exactly like his daddy, needing only five minutes to acclimatise to the day before leaping around like a spring bunny and being excited by what lies ahead.

So I guess having a head start in the morning will probably do me the world of good, making sure I’ve had that essential cup of tea and shower before the little ray of sunshine wakes up and decides it is playtime.

It all sounds great in theory, I just don’t trust myself enough to be absolutely certain it will work in practice.

It is so difficult to ignore the calls of a toddler, so no matter how rubbish and tired I’m feeling, I know I will get up.

But ignoring an alarm clock could be far too easy – after all they do come with a superb feature every small child should have – a snooze button!

* Disastrous day which changed the world

Watching the harrowing pictures again of 9/11 it is still so hard to comprehend, even ten years on.

I grew up in the age of the Northern Island troubles, where bomb scares and terrorist attacks were just something we all lived with.

But the attacks on America shocked the world because of the sheer scale, and because the States had been seemingly immune from terrorism.

Unfortunately while some people think violence is the only answer to our differences, the world will never be a safe one for our children.

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