Are the Horsies Awake?

Since the move to his Big Boy Bed, mornings have gone a little differently.  N can get up and out of bed on his own. Even before the switch his little internal clock was set a little bit off of what we prefer.  6:20 was his usual waking moment and D and I swapped getting up with him in the mornings so the rest of the family could get their sleep. Now that N and E are in the same room, an interruption is inevitable we just wanted to lessen the blow.  Enter the horsies.  I strung up some lights with plastic horses attached (A birthday gift to E from Ben Brubaker) and plugged them into a timer. We talked all day about waiting until the horseies 'wake up' before getting out of bed, we even did a few trial runs and E of course was happy to oblige as the 'sleeping kid waiting for the horse lights to pop on.'  The first night I set the timer for an earlier target so that N could see the process play out, and could feel successful.  It worked!  The lights actually came on before we was even awake, and he promptly called out, "All done!" The next morning I changed the timer to just 5 minutes later. Success again. This idea has worked so well; providing a visual cue for what is acceptable makes him feel good and a few extra minutes of sleep on my end.