I hate bedtime. I hate it! At our house it is the epitome of chaos. Whiny kids, short tempered adults, yelling, giggling, bed jumping...AHHHH! I just want everyone to go to bed!
Our bedtime routine is at least an hour long process. It starts with bath time right after supper. This may be my all time least favorite parenting chore. The kids complain because they don't want to take baths. They are fully capable of tearing off their clothing (most of the time I am telling them to get their clothes back on) but I am the one wrestling them out of pants, shirts, and socks and into the tub.
Once in the tub, the kids are squealing, singing "Five Little Ducks" at the top of their lungs and pretty much making it impossible for me to wash them. The acoustic onslaught of the splashing and yelling grinds me in a way nothing else does. Then there is the whining. "It's too hot. Now it's too cold!" Grrrr! Of course I get bubbles in their eyes because it is physically impossible for them to sit still for five minutes while I wash their hair so there usually are tears shed. To top it off, they whine about having to get out. Are you kidding me? I had to force you in there to begin with!
So by the end of bath time I am ready for them to just go to sleep but that would make my life way too easy. They still have to get jammies on, hair dried, and teeth brushed, all of which can produce tears and irritable comments from me...hurry up, come here, how many times have I told you to put your pants on!!!
The cleansing and dressing are only the beginning. We then have to search the house high and low for all beloved objects that are needed for going to sleep. "Where's my dankie?" "Mom, can you find my bitty?" "I need my baby." And my all time favorite, "I want my little, green monster truck!" I am not kidding. Will likes to hold on to it sometimes while he sleeps. Real nice and cuddly.
Lovies found and time to march upstairs. Each kid picks a book and gets a song. Will typically picks one of the 20 Elmo books we have that have been read a billion times and then wants me to sing the ABC song. So every night, I sing the ABCs, trying to make it into some sort of sweet lullaby while keeping it interesting by doing a mash up with Twinkle Twinkle. I have to keep my sanity somehow.
Livi's choice of book is always unpredictable. One night we read a science book about stars she had checked out from the school library. Pretty sure that put her to sleep within five minutes. If she doesn't fall asleep during story time, there are the endless demands. "Scratch my back." "Sing me a song." "Get me a drink." And she has the oddest song choices. Sometimes they are the standards like You Are My Sunshine, sometimes she prefers ones I have sung to her since she was a baby like Godspeed by the Dixie Chicks and I'll Sing a Luv-a-Bye To You from Winnie the Pooh. Other times she goes through months of requesting Christmas songs (White Christmas and The Christmas Song being her favorite) in the middle of the summer.
Most of the time I fall asleep before the kids do. Many evenings I have awoken up crammed in Will's toddler bed with him. Grumbling because I fell asleep and my body is sore from being scrunched up in a tiny bed for who knows how long, I look at my sleeping kids and am reminded that we are one night closer to them growing up. And when they are grown up they won't want me to tuck them in anymore. So, I crawl back in for a few more snuggles with each of them while they are sleeping.
I really don't like our bedtime routine but I do love those last moments of the day when we actually have special time together snuggled in bed talking about their favorite moments of the day. I really do cherish those giggles, stories and snuggles and know that these will be fewer and further between as they grown up. As I lay with Will I tell him, "I love you" and without fail he sleepily replies, "I wuv you mama. You da best mommy in da world." And I whisper back, "You're the best Bubba in the world." And that makes the craziness totally worth it!
