Goodnight Sweetheart

We have a bedtime routine. Not me, but crazy. As I have said before he is a very routine kind of child.

We do the same thing everynight with few changes.

In the summer (at least this summer) bedtime is at 8:30, mostly due to the fact that the sun is still up till about that time and the time change sort of threw us off and now here we are putting him to bed at 8:30.

We head upstairs, he brushes his teeth, goes potty, chooses his pj's and gets dressed. The reason he brushes his teeth first is because if his shirt were to get one tiny drop of water on it, said shirt would then be "dowty" and crazy would be in a new shirt soon after. After a few "dowty" shirts, the cleaning of the teeth happens before the dressing.

He then jumps into his dada's arms, lower the dimmer on the lights, winds the two Winnie the Pooh water globes, makes sure the closet door is closed, grabs his milk and sits in my lap in the glider.

He prays, "Jejus, help me feel better. Tank choo. Amen." And then says, "Mama pray." I pray, he proceeds to drink his milk. I finish my prayer and he points to his dad who ends the prayer chain with, "And please help him stay in bed until the sun comes up."

At the end of the prayer, my husband kisses him, kisses me and kisses the "baby" or bump.

Now lately, crazy kid is on a dad boost. He wants daddy. Which is great! I love it because it gives me a break.

So usually, my husband will be almost out of the room when crazy says, "Daddy sit." So that is what he does. He sits. And they rock out.

At this time, I lean over and kiss my child and then kiss my hubs.

Lately, however, they both have a routine that was cute. Was. It is now somewhat annoying, that is, it becomes annoying very quickly.

Crazy husband taught my son to say "syke." You remember syke, right? You know when someone would say something nice and then proceed by saying, "syke" or just kidding.

Yeah, it was dumb back then too.

So anyways, my sweet boy says that when I go to kiss him. I lean in and he puckers up, leans forward and then turns his head and screaches, "Syke!"

Yeah. It's cute the first, I don't know, 3 times and after that, not so much. And of course, my husband, being the two year old at heart, joins along and continuously "Sykes" me out as well. I soon get fed up and begin to walk out, when my son says, "Aw mom, come back." And the whole thing starts up again.

So...finally after the parent who doesn't have to sit leaves, we sing two songs. His favorites include, "Itsy Bitsy Spider," "Wheel on the bus," "He's got the whole world in his hands," "Hakuna Matata (Lion King)" and any Veggie Tales song.

He only lets my husband sing, as he calls is, "Hole whirl" that is whole world, mostly because he doesn't know the words to any other song which has led to frustration and hurt feelings. My son is frustrated and my husband is hurt because my son tells him, "No dad, no sing. Mama sing, daddy shhh," and he has even laughed at my husband's "singing." Not a ha ha kind of laugh, but a "this poor man thinks he can sing/Randy Jackson, Ha, ha ha, with a nodding of the head" kind of laugh.

After the song, crazy climbs into bed and jumps down. Literaly jumps. We have had bumps due to the head hitting the rail.

He asks for the parent who is not in the room. If it is me I sit with him for "one minute," and hold his chubby hand. I tell him I am leaving and he says "Cover feet." I cover his feet with his precious "Bie," go to the door and say good night sweetheart. He then will say, "sweetdweams," and I reply, "Sweetdreams."

I close the door and pray he sleeps through the night and doesn't wake till 8:30.

Atleast most of the time he sleeps through the night.

And that's his routine. To think one day he'll go up to his room and go to sleep by just me saying so...Not yet. I'll keep this routine for as long as it lasts.

"Father thanks for such routines. For things we can count on such as this. Help me to not take for granted these moments, but to treasure them. It may seem so distant to think one day he'll turn off his own lights and tuck himself in...God don't let those days come too fast. Even when I'm tired and ready to go, if he wants me to stay, remind me that this only lasts for a moment. In your precious name, Amen."