Routine Affection

Each morning before my husband leaves to work, he kisses me on the cheek. Even though it is the sweetest thing ever, this has been something that I have had to get used to. I am not a morning person and he would gladly vouch for that! I have trouble falling asleep and my best sleep, my deepest sleep, usually happens in the early morning hours between 2-6 am. When he kisses me, I usually have another hour or so that I can sleep before I have to get up with the kids, but most often than not, that kiss usually wakes me up. I cannot fall back asleep, so I lay in bed alone, (because he has already rushed out the door for the day,) thinking about sending him a grumpy text how nice one more hour of sleep would have been.

He does know it wakes me up, so he kisses me gently, but I still wake up. He of course, would stop it all together if I wanted, but I really don't! All of the kisses, the hugs, and the routine affection help to keep us passionate. It is something that I do not want us to take for granted. We kiss and hug each other hello and good-bye. We say, "I love you" almost every time we end a phone conversation and we text each other sexy "I love you" and "I'm thinking about you texts" several times a day. 

It is so easy to let important habits die.  When we first meet someone and begin dating, that person is constantly on our mind. We call each other often, send frequent emails, texts, and work hard to find time to spend together. When my husband and I first started dating, we would willingly sacrifice sleep. We never wanted our dates to end. We would stay together until we could barely keep our eyes open. That left us few hours for sleep, lots of driving back and forth between each other’s homes, but we did it nearly every day that we did not have our kids possible. Sleep was not as important as our time together and the crazy thing is that we did not even suffer the next day! We did not need sleep, we were living on love.

Things change. We get married. We have kids. Life happens. We get comfortable in our relationships and that person that once intrigued us so much becomes a part of our life. We learn each other’s interests, routines, habits, thoughts, and moods. He keeps better track of my monthly cycle than I do. We become familiar. It is not that we do not feel as passionate about each other as we once did or that we appreciate them any less, we just do not make the time to show it as often. We get caught up in the day-to-day stuff. So my husband and I make a conscious effort to schedule sex keep up the little habits of affection and to appreciate the little moments of opportunity.  

For instance, I am not a girl who likes to sit in front of the television and flip through channels, but my husband does this to relax. So sometimes, I will go and cuddle with him on the couch, and watch the boring science and history channels with him, because I know he likes it. He needs it. I need it. We make it a point to not only give each other affection, but to receive the affection lovingly. That early morning kiss may cut into my sleep some days, but it sure is a nice way to wake up.