Bed Time Routine

I've been meaning to post about this for a while. And since the time I first got the idea it's grown into something huge. Maddox's bedtime routine as he's gotten older has become something larger than life. I'm seriously now planning about 45 minutes out of my night to make sure that we get done everything that we want to/need to get done. (If you include bathtime and the 20 minute wrestling match known as tooth brush time, then we're getting in over an hour.)

It all starts with story time. This is when we read 3-5 books of Maddox's choosing. Usually we read the same 3-5 books, unless we've purchased a new book that week and it works it's way into the rotation. Some nights (this is becoming more frequent) he decides that he should read to me. This is the funniest thing ever, with certain books he can go word for word on every page. With other books he'll pick out the two most complicated words and emphasize those two, while mumbling jibberish over the other words. Some nights he's just not feeling like reading and will sit on his bed while I read to him, and he'll wait until I'm not expecting it and he'll pull my head back away from the book and laugh. This doesn't sound very funny, but last night we laughed out loud (lol'd) for like 10 minutes, it just didn't get old because he's got great comedic timing for a 2 year old. After we get done reading books we say our prayers. Maddox's prayers are the greatest. He gets about 2 sentences into it and says, "dad, you say it." The best is a few weeks ago he asked if he could say his prayers inside of his Toy Story tent that's in his room. I let him do it and it went like this, "dear Heavenly Father, thank you for this day, thank you for mommy and daddy and Maddox, OH MY GOODNESS!!!!! THERE IS A BUZZ LIGHTYEAR ON THIS TENT!!!!" I couldn't stop laughing. Anyways prayer time is followed by a 'goodnight' telephone call to Maddox's mom. He usually sits there and listens to her talk, tells her about our night, and tells her he's going to dream about riding on a red tractor with her. Once we've made the call it's time for singing time. We turn off the lights, and sing 3 songs, always the same songs, and always in the same order. We start with "Lullaby," the Jack Johnson-Matt Costa version. I'm only allowed to sing it exactly as it was recorded by them. Maddox will not allow any substitutions or creative expressions by daddy. Example, "I'll be home soon darlin, I guarantee," is a line from the song that I on occasion will sing as, "I'll be home soon Maddox, I guarantee." No dice, at that point I'm told to start that part over and "don't say Maddox, say darlin." Oh, and I'm supposed to be tickling his back this entire time. After I finish this song it's time for "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star," again, no variations and I must be tickling his back. The third and final song has become my favorite. I'm supposed to hold him like a baby and sing, "You are My Sunshine." I like this one because my grandpa used to sing it to me, as did my mom, when I was a baby. Sidenote; one of my favorite moments of my entire life was hearing Maddox sing that song to my grandpa. Anyways, Maddox has me hold him like a baby, like a giant baby. He's so big now that it's become kind of awkward, I hold him but his legs and head just kind of hang there, and I think he kind of recognizes this because sometimes he's laughing while I sing this to him, and he usually starts climbing out of my arms and into bed before I finish the final verse. This is one of those things that I think both of us kind of do for the other person. If we were able to sit down man to man and discuss this I'm sure it would end up being resolved with a "oh, you don't like that? I was only doing it for you," from both parties. Maybe we'll have that talk when he's in middle school. Anyhow, when we finish singing time it's time for me to tell him 2 stories. He picks the subject of each story and then I make up the story. I'm interrupted by his suggestions though throughout. The first story is usually about Maddox being a racecar driver, he has a red racecar, a red helmet, and he always beats daddy who is a racecar driver too. Last night daddy blew a tire on the last lap and his yellow racecar spun out of control, allowing Maddox to win the race. After we get done with the racecar story, then it's time for me to tell a story about Maddox the fireman. I tell a 4-5 minute story about Maddox saving lives, stopping fires, and basically being the most badass fireman of all time. At the end of the fireman stories Maddox always adds, "...and then, Maddox went to eat some food and drink some rootbeer." This is where we say goodnight to one another. Usually he tells me goodnight, and then I know it's finally time for me to go to bed. At first I started to get frustrated with the length of this routine. I mean seriously, I'm looking at the length of this post and I'm amazed at how long this takes. It kind of reminds me of one of those way too long bro-hug handshakes that has like 50 secret combinations. But the more I think about it the luckier I feel to have this wonderful boy all the nights I do. The length of this routine is just making up for the nights that we have to be apart. And when I think about the nights that we're apart I want to add a few more activities into the bedtime routine.