Bedtime Stories

We have a solid bedtime routine going, and have for some time now. We struggled through a tough spot a few months ago and I decided to consult some friends, and of course, the world wide web. What I came up with was that the key to a bedtime routine is ROUTINE. Laying it out so kids know exactly what will be happening. A few photoshoots, trips to the craft section and borrowed time on a friend's laminator later, I had Teagan's bedtime routine diagrammed.

My friend, Natalie, gave me the inspired idea to take pictures of Teagan herself doing the things we do at bedtime, instead of browsing stock photos. Regardless of whether it works, I thought, I've got some darling pictures out of it.

I strung them all together and tried to come up with a good way to get Teagan involved in the checking-off process, whether it be moving them, stickers, and then it came to me. Velcro. Severely underutilized and absolutely perfect for this scenario. So, the idea is that she puts a happy face on each of the items on the list as she completes them. So far the happy face is enough motivation, I'm not sure what to do when she decides she needs more incentive - sticker chart? Ideas welcome.

A while back, I had Brandon putting her to bed on his own, since I was spending so much of the day with her, but now that she's older, it felt right to have both of us involved. I'm not sure if it will always be that way - what with Junior on his way and all - but for now, this works and she seems to enjoy it. The other day she asked for Daddy to be the one to snuggle her and it melted my heart...and got me off the hook.

While it may seem like a long routine, most of the items don't take that long - we usually sing while we're getting her changed and dressed to make the whole thing more pleasant. But bedtime stories. Those are a mixed bag. Right after the prayer, she runs over to the bookcase and we ask her to fetch the scriptures. To which she always responds, "The blue one?" Yes, we're trying to read The Book of Mormon together as a family, each reading a verse. She has really taken to it and has fun repeating the verses when we prompt her. It's been an absolute delight to hear words and phrases like, "it came to pass", "concerning", "Jerusalem", "obedient", "steadfast and immovable" and "murmur" cross those tiny, perfect little lips.

Once we're finished with "the blue one", she runs it back to her bookshelf and chooses two stories, then instructs us as to who will read first. Usually the books are fairly well matched, either from the same series or just about the same length. On good days, where all has been going smoothly, she chooses smaller books - more pictures, less words. On those dreadful days when bedtime can't seem to come soon enough for us, she inevitably chooses her books accordingly.

Like the other night when she hadn't napped and had been awake since the wee hours, and was misbehaving to the point where she earned herself a 6:45 PM bedtime. She decided on these:

Yes, you read that right - 75 Fables for Living, Loving, & Learning. Nice try. So I had her choose one such fable...that went on for what seemed like an eternity. Pages and pages of words. I'm fairly certain she checked out two pages in, but to save face, feigned interest in the novel. She hasn't chosen that particular book since. Although this evening - an awake since 5:30 without a nap sort of a day - we couldn't wait to get her to sleep and we both cringed as she returned from the bookshelf with two early readers. Two 64-page early readers. That's 128 pages of bedtime story on a night when a single line seemed like too much. Brandon was reading so fast he started to trip over the words of The Big Honey Hunt. He slowed it down and we all had a good laugh at Papa Bear's misadventures.

She chose to "snuggle a Daddy tonight" to which I eagerly agreed and I'm told she was fast asleep within minutes. Almost worth the agony that was the last several hours.