Bedtime Routines

Sorry if this story is boring, it’s just for my own journaling purposes!

Tracen used to be so easy to put to bed.  I’d brush his teeth (hopefully!) read a story or something, say his prayers for him (he’d fold his arms but never said his own prayer or even repeated what you were saying) and throw him in his crib with a sippy of water and a blanket and pillow and say good night.  He’d lay down and go to sleep.

The past two nights as I’ve been trying to get him to go to sleep I’ve thought about how much that’s changed lately!  The day he learned to climb out of his crib his easy to bed routine changed a lot!  Tonight was a pretty typical night

I took Tracen and Lincoln in their room, diapers changed, jammies on…Tracen picked “green ones” which are really brown but pretty much everything is green to him these days.  They were the full body type.  Then we read two books which turned into 5 or 6.  Lincoln was asleep at this point so I put him to bed in my room.  Back to Tracen’s room.

Lights off!  “I’m scared” “no you’re fine lay down”  He now repeats his prayers. For seriously like 20 minutes he’s down and sitting up and rolling over and needs a drink, needs a blanket, needs a soft blanket.  If it weren’t sorta cute I might go crazy. 

Then laying together on his toddler bed (you should have seen it when I was 8 months pregnant!) we discuss the important things in life like nose boogies, his and mine, and other important things to two year old boys.

This boy LOVES to have his back and belly scratched.  Problem is he wants his skin scratched, none of this over the shirt stuff.  Remember what kind of jammies he picked out?  So before it’s all over I’ve unsnapped the bottom of his jammies and I’m scratching his back then he’ll roll over for his belly and say “this one”  then back on his belly so I can scratch his back “this one” then he starts in with various limbs.  His foot “this one” other foot “this one” Then each leg, then his belly, then his foot, then his back.  The kid is like 75% asleep and he’s still rotating through body parts to be scratched “this one”  His poor wife is going to go crazy scratching his back every night.  He’s kinda like a big dog.

He finally falls asleep like an hour after we start this whole routine.  I’m not even sure why I put him in jammies because I cover him up with his blanket, pj’s undone up around his waist and all and sneak out of his room.

I love that kid.