Winken, Blinken, and Nod

note: This post is much longer than I expected it to be. I want to be able to remember the good parts about putting them kids to bed at night after they've all grown up and left the house. I love tucking them in, and I want to be able to remember how we do it.

Our full bedtime routine goes as follows:

6:30 Ideally we would be having scripture study and reading time each night, but we've kind of gotten out of the habit of that since Brian left. We're working on it, though.

6:45ish While we're starting to get ready for bed, I sing the kids a song we made up a couple of months ago. It's kind of a jazzy number they sing with me. It basically goes:

Carrie: Alyssa are you ready for bed?
Alyssa: No!
Carrie: Alyssa are you ready for bed? (This one goes a little higher than the first.)
Alyssa: No!
Carrie: Aren't you tired?
Alyssa: No!
Carrie: Aren't you sleepy?
Alyssa: No!
Carrie: Alyssa are you ready for bed? (This one actually goes down.)

And then I sing it to Ethan and Marcus. It was so cute when Ethan caught on to the idea and started to sing his own "no's" in the correct places.

We get the kids pajamas on them while we're singing this song. Marcus actually has a couple of night time diapers that are different than the rest, because he pees like crazy just before he wakes up in the morning. He wears bamboo diapers to bed, because they're super absorbent. I don't know why anyone needed to know that. Hhhmm. After getting pajamas on, Alyssa brushes her teeth. We haven't been doing so great with Ethan and Marcus' teeth lately. We need to fix that.

Next, we have family prayer, and we group together for prayer by singing the Primary song that goes Let us gather in a circle, and kneel in family prayer to thank our Heavenly Father for the blessings we all share. We sing that, because it's what my family sang for family prayers when I was growing up, and because -face it- it's a great song.

Next comes the actual "tucking in" part. Alyssa and Ethan say their personal prayers, then I tuck them in to bed and ask them what their favorite part of the day was. (This was also something I got from my mom and dad.) We haven't started saying personal prayers for Marcus yet. When Ethan was this age, we went ahead and said a prayer for him, not pretending to talk for him, but saying things like, "We're so thankful for Ethan," and "Please help Ethan sleep well tonight," until he was able to start saying them himself. I'd like to start doing this for Marcus now that he's getting older so he can feel more included in being tucked in. Alyssa's answer to the favorite part of the day question is always (and I do mean always) "Everything." I tried to make her pick one specific thing for a while, but it didn't stick. Ethan usually grunts an answer, or just says, "Day," so next I ask, "Was ______ the best part of your day?" and he says, "Yeah." See, this whole sequence, in Alyssa's mind, is tied together as one action: tucking in. If Marcus is screaming and I'm trying to just nurse him to get him to sleep quickly, I can't just listen to Alyssa's prayers and ask her her favorite part of the day, because that's not tucking her in. I have to do it all. Tonight she actually climbed into her blankets on her own after her prayer, because she was cold, and she told me that I didn't have to tuck her in, that she would give me the night off. I told her that since she was already in her covers, I'd just ask her about her day, and she said I didn't need to do that because I wasn't tucking her in that night. After a five minute discussion, we ended up deciding that we would go ahead talk about her day, then after I laid Marcus down I would take her blankets off of her, put them back on, and tuck her in. Kind of silly, but she was happy with it.

After "Tucking In" I sit on Ethan's bed and nurse Marcus while I sing the kids their bedtime songs. I always sing them in the same order. Most of it is kind of like a medley - the last word of the current song gives a clue as to what the next song will be (i.e. "I'm Trying to be like Jesus" ends in for these are the things Jesus taught, and the next song is "Teach Me to walk in the Light.") Actually, now that I think about it, those are the only two songs that do that. I thought there were more. Oh well. Alyssa knows the order, though, and if I'm quiet for a minute or two between songs, she'll tell me what I should be singing, and sometimes she sings them with me. Ethan's starting to sing them with us, too, but he's at the stage where he sings only the last word of each line, a split second too late. It's very cute.

I start singing with another song that we made up that goes Now it's time to say goodnight. Now it's time to hold you tight. We've said your prayers and talked about your day. Now it's time to say goodnight. Now it's time to say goodnight. Yes, now it's time to tuck you tight - into your bed. Lay down your head. Yes, now it's time to say goodnight. (Here's where it get's exciting.) Lay down your sleep head. Snuggle into your bed. (Crescendo) Close your eyes and go to sleep my little ones. (Now it's quiet again.) Now it's time to say goodnight. Yes, now it's time to hold you tight. Lay down in bed, and rest your sleepy head. For now it's time to say goodnight. Usually by now Marcus is done nursing, and I walk around the room, rocking him.

Next on the list is "I Am a Child of God." I like to think of that song as our comfort song. I sing it to my babies long before they're born, and then I sing it to them when they're nursing or being loved. In theory, if there's ever a problem, I can sing it to them and they know they're okay. I basically started that so I could calm them down when they're unhappy about being strapped in their car seat, but I sang it to Marcus when he was in the Emergency Room when he was a newborn, and at least it helped me feel better. Hopefully it helped him feel better, too.

The next song is one that my mom used to sing to us. I don't know where it came from. I googled it, and I could only find versions that were similar, but nothing exactly the same. Apparently, it's the "Go to Bed Song," and the version my mom sang to us goes Go to bed one, a golden sun. Go to bed two, a golden shoe. (And the chorus is) Sleep, sleep, go to sleep. Go to sleep, my little one sleep. And then it counts up to ten with the chorus after the even numbers. Its verses are three/tree, four/door, five/hive, six/sticks, seven/heaven, eight/gate, nine/sign, ten/hen.

Then I sing, "Jesus Once Was a Little Child," "I'm trying to be like Jesus," "Teach Me to Walk in the Light," and then if Marcus isn't asleep by then I add, "Love One Another," and "Heavenly Father Loves Me." Usually Marcus and Ethan are sleeping at this point, and I go give Alyssa another kiss on the forehead and say good night to her.