And On His Farm He Had A...

Since our fabulous new loft bedroom premiered in early July, I have been attempting (begging) to find a consistent bedtime routine.  It started very ugly on my part.  It's pretty hard to go from snuggles and lullabies and soothing nite-nites - one of which never took more than about 30 seconds to put to bed, to two giggling giddy toddlers who have probably the coolest room ever (it beats the heck out of OUR room) and who are seemingly wound down until they get into their sleeping spaces, or should I call them "The Boys' Most Awesome Fort Ever" and decide it's a whole new place to jump around, talk to one another and climb under each others sheets.  The ugly - me stomping up and down the stairs threatening them within an inch of their lives with "IT'S NITE-NITE!  GO TO SLEEP!"  (Caps intended to read as if I was screaming because on several nights in the past two months, I was  - cringing admittance that I yell at my kids.)

Well, somewhere in the past month, I gave up.  I guess I got tired of listening to myself and tired of those stairs - after all they are the only ones on the whole property that are not part of a ladder.  So one night, I just let 'em have at it.  The next morning, I found Duke sleeping next to Jack which made me melt into an ooey gooey mess of a moment - my kids love one another!

Since then, for the most part, it's been working better - gee could it have been ME all along causing the delay? - cringing admittance I need to yell less and let it go more.  Typical routine has become- we read a book in the rocking chair, then some nights when it's not too late, we read a page of our devotional for toddlers, then Duke is up the ladder to his bed and laying down while I rock Jack and sing our old standby, Hush Little Baby (yep Mom, we still sing that song and I think of you every time I've done it for 4 years now - twice a night for nearly 3 of those), then Jack's up the ladder to his bed, rub his back a minute; me-"I love you very much" Jack-"I love you too" me-"Nite-Nite" Jack-"Nite-Nite", I go to Duke's bed, rub his back, sing Hush Little Baby, me-"Give me a kiss" kiss, me-"Nite-Nite", Duke-"Nite-Nite", check Jack for one last kiss, down the stairs and lights out.  I'm done.

Not bad given where we started from.  The only glitch, occassionally Duke likes to sing REALLY LOUDLY before completely passing out from exhaustion on the nights when he's overtired.

Tonight's chosen tune?  Old McDonald.  Except the farmer only has a chicken.  And he sang it three times, while I attempted to concentrate on making it all the way through Hush Little Baby with Jack without busting out a laugh that would bounce both of us out of the rocking chair.  I mean after the 2nd round of "And on his farm he had a................CHICKEN!  E-I-E-I-O!"  You would have been close to wetting your own pants, trust me. 

So I rush though the rest of the lullaby as I can safely without losing my composure figuring at any minute the chicken is going to turn into a cow or pig, get Jack in bed, only to find Duke - out cold. 

I could have sworn there were feathers laying near his pillow in the dark of the room.