Bedtime Routine

I am not sure if I have blogged about this before, but I just want to remember what bedtime was like at this stage.

From youngest to oldest.....

Levi:  He goes to sleep about 8 pm.  After his bath, he gets a new diaper and pj's.  We all say goodnight to him.  I take him to his room, snuggle him for a few minutes while I pray for him.  I lay him down (nothing in his bed; no pacifier or anything).  He flops to his belly and goes to sleep pretty fast.  He usually sleeps 11-12 hours.

Luke:  Luke gets in bed about 8:15.  If he napped that day, he's up forever.  If he did not nap, he will fall asleep within 30 minutes.  When I lay with him, we have the exact same conversation every night:
Luke: "Tell me story when you were a kid." (He got this from Caleb)
(So I do)
Luke: "Ask me my day."
Me: "How was your day?  What was the best part of your day?"
He answers.
Luke (rolls over so I will scratch his back): "Sing 'I Love, I Love'"
I sing the song "I Love Your Presence", but change the words "I love you, Pookers".
Then, he usually falls asleep.  I kiss him goodnight and pull up his covers.
If he doesn't fall asleep, he fakes asleep for a few moments before laughing hysterically.

Chloe:  She loves to play before bed, so she calls me in when she's "about to fall asleep".  I lay with her.  I ask about her day.  She says, "let's talk about my birthday".....she says this 364 days a year :).  We talk for awhile.  The whole time, she flops around.  She cannot sit still.  Chloe also plays with my hair sometimes, which I LOVE.  Then, I go to pray.  Everynight, without fail, she will say, "Don't leave" over and over while I am praying.  I finish praying, start to leave, and she grabs me tightly and yells/cries "Don't leave!!!!"  It's quite comical because it happens that way every night!

Caleb:  This is Caleb's opportunity to hash out his deep thoughts, which I love.  He does not miss a beat and catches EVERYTHING that is said around him.  So bedtime is when he processes it all.  When we are done with that, he will ask me to tell him a story from when I was a kid.  I am running out of stories to tell him, but it is so fun to remember things about my childhood.  I pray with him.  And he always asks if I will scratch his back for two minutes.  I usually do.  My boy loves to get his back scratched.  He is maturing so rapidly, but I have a feeling he will want his back scratched for years to come (I hope!).

After this rather long bedtime process, each kid (except Levi) comes out about 437 times before they fall asleep.


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