I'll start by saying the process takes a while - especially when it's bath night (every other day). And as tired as we are, especially at the end of a work day, sometimes we get worn out from the process. At the same time, though, we know all too well that this stage of their lives won't last forever, and we'd better enjoy every (tiring) minute of it. One day they won't want us to read to them, they won't want help with their pajamas. They won't want to tell us one last joke, or ask us to "stay for one more minute". It's hard to believe that one day we'll just tell them it's bedtime and they'll go off to bed on their own, without needing or wanting any help from us.
I'll start with Reed. I think for Reed, sleep is a necessary evil - he's not crazy about it, but he accepts that it's got to happen. The time in his room at night seems to be his most treasured time of the day - he's free to read, do work books, play with his toys....whatever he wants. Before he headed off to kindergarten, we probably let him stay up too late, too often. But now we're doing our best to make sure he's had lights out by 8:15 p.m. (don't tell anybody that he was up until 10:15 p.m. last night!).
Once we've made it through the land mines of getting pajamas on, teeth brushed, and potty time, we move on to Reed's room. I should add that it's VERY important to him that you turn his bedroom light off even if you're just leaving to go help with teeth brushing....he's trying to save the Earth. So when you finally make it to his room, the usual routine is that he chooses some variation of three books. He may choose one magazine, like National Geographic for Kids (which Nikki sent him a subscription for), or several chapters of a chapter book, or a couple of shorter books. Whatever totals up to "three books" worth....it's been a while since it's been that simple, though. Pretty much everything we read, Reed's already read once or twice by the time we get to it. But he still enjoys the "repeats" anyway. I guess I should backtrack a little to say that we take turns putting the kids to bed each night. So once books are read, Reed gets whatever time's left between then and 8:15 p.m. to do stuff in his room. As I mentioned, he likes to just read on his own, or make up games using his stuffed animals and/or books, or do workbook pages, or draw at his desk. His days are so busy now, I think he's a little more tired when it gets to the end of the day. So he hasn't been making much of a fuss at lights out time lately, which is good.
And though he's a big grown up kindergartener, from time to time (like one night last week), he will still ask me to sing the song I've been singing to him since he was a tiny baby - "Baby Mine" from the movie Dumbo. The song was on a "Best of Country Sings the Best of Disney" CD which I bought many years ago, before we even had kids, and that version is sung by bluegrass songstress Allison Krauss. I certainly don't claim to do it justice, but fortunately for me, he still likes it. And it certainly makes me happy when he asks me to sing it and makes me feel so needed.
And then there's Amy. We go through the same sometimes frustrations with getting through the pajama putting on, the teeth brushing, the pottying. When we settle in for books, Amy is always happy to sit on our laps and get cozy. Like Reed did at her age, she tends to be happy with re-reading the same couple of books for stretches of time; we read 3 books each night. Unlike Reed, sleep is important to Amy and I think she enjoys it as much as I do! Once we're done with books, Amy chooses a CD and sets it up herself. She got a CD player for Christmas and since then has felt like a really big girl to put her own CDs in and get them going. She also tends to listen to the same CD for a couple of weeks in a row before choosing a new one, similar to how she is with books. The current #1 on the Amy hit parade is the "Choo Choo Soul" CD. Then she turns out the lights and climbs into bed. Then we usually hear "Will you stay for one minute?" and she asks us to lay down by her. And I think I've mentioned this before, but that's when she starts with picking at our fingernails with her fingernails. It really seems to calm her but it drives me kind of nutty. Sometimes she needs several extra hugs and kisses, but mostly then she's fine to go off to sleep on her own. I often wonder how long she lays awake in bed...sometimes I think it takes her quite a while to drift off. I will knock on wood as I type this, but lately she's been great at staying in her bed all night long. For a while she would wander in to our room during the night and we'd have to return her. But she's been doing really well. She wakes up somewhere between 6 (really close to 6 most days lately) and 6:30 and comes to our room for a little cuddle time; sometimes she falls back to sleep. And off we go into our day!
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