Bedtime Routine

Every mother knows that bedtime can be a time that you look forward to and also dread at the same time. When my oldest daughter was little, she used to lie down in bed, belt out a few songs (at the top of her lungs to make sure the entire neighborhood could hear her) and then peacefully drift off to sleep. But, not my son! At the age of two, he had more energy than an entire case of Red Bull!
Every night at bedtime, I gave him a bath, read him a few books, and kissed him goodnight. That’s when he was supposed to close his precious little eyes and drift off to sleep, right? Wrong!

One night, the walls began to shake and the pictures that were hung unsteadily shifted back and forth. I raced in to his bedroom thinking that there must be a fault line directly under his bedroom that had caused an earthquake. Instead, I found him lying in his bed laughing. He thought it was absolutely hilarious to see how hard he had to kick the wall to make the pictures in the living room fall down.

That was just the beginning! That’s when the typical, “Can I have a glass of water?” and “I have to go to the bathroom” excuses began. Now keep in mind, my son was potty training so I did not want to tell him that he could not attempt to go to the bathroom, especially since it was like pulling teeth to get him to pee anywhere except on the neighbor’s fence any other time of the day!

That night, he casually walked to the bathroom, insisted on taking off ALL of his clothes, including his socks, and attempted to pee. I sat on the side of the bathtub, waiting for him to finish for what seemed like an eternity. Just as I was about to doze off, he finally said, “Mom, I’m done! I’m ready to go to sleep now!” Racing in to his bedroom, he pulled the covers up over his naked body. “Ryan,” I exclaimed when I reached his bedroom, “did you wash your hands after going to the bathroom?” “No,” he replied. “I don’t need to! I only held my pee-pee with two fingers!”