Day 80: Bedtime

For months now we have struggled to find just the right bedtime routine for the girls.  Prior to a couple of months ago, bedtime at our house was pretty much of a breeze.  We read two stories, sang two songs, prayed, and laid the girls in their beds.  At which point they both went promptly to sleep.

But two months ago that all changed, and the last two months have been a tremendous struggle.  Shortstack has a big fit, pretty much every night, complete with throwing everything out of her bed, including pillow, blanket, stuffed animals, and sometimes even her pj's and diaper!

Nitro is sweet about the song and the prayer, but she mostly just seems to want to get into her bed.  And then once we put her in the bed, she has this nightly routine of giving us a million reasons why she can't lay down.

For Shortstack, I have learned not to engage in her fit throwing.  Instead, I just let her go, and then after she calms down, I go back into her room, pick her up, comfort her, give her all of her things back, and then she goes to sleep.

For Nitro, I mostly just laugh because her bedtime routine is a crack-up!

Tonight, I tried something new.  I set both girls down on the bottom step of our staircase, and I talked to them about thanking God.  In my grand pride, I was thinking, "Man this is going great! These girls are riveted!"  And then I asked them each what they would like to thank God for.  (I had modeled all the things I was thankful for first, so they were primed!)

Nitro said, "Thank you God for S."  (It was so sweet.  I actually teared up.)  Then she said, "Thank you for trains, and snacks, and puppy, and airplanes and school buses."  (Keep in mind she doesn't talk much and doesn't talk clearly, but these words were pretty clear.)  I still thought her prayer was pretty cute.  Then she said, "not funder." 

I laughed, hard.  She really doesn't like thunder.

So then it was Shortstack's turn.  I expected big things from her.  She's incredibly verbal.  And a pretty deep thinker.  She said, "Thank you God for Santa."  I said, "Santa?"  In my head I'm thinking, "Santa?  You want to thank God for Santa?!"  She persisted.  "Yes, Santa.  Thank you God for Santa."

I asked her if she wanted to thank God for anything else and she said yes, closed her eyes, put her hands together and said, "Thank you God for snow."  SNOW?  She's never even seen snow.  I said, "You want to thank God for Santa and snow?  Why Santa and snow?"  She said, "God hides in the snow."  (Clearly I have some work to do here!)

We closed by thanking God for our family.  As we walked up the steps, Shortstack stopped, sat back down and said, "Thank you for my brothers.  For Zack and Jacob and Tina."  (She really doesn't understand Tina's role yet.)

All that to say, I love bedtime.  With all of its messiness and temper tantrums and excuses not to fall asleep.  We'll see if I still love it when they aren't in cribs anymore!