We have fallen into a regular nighttime routine, of late. One that we all love. Even Mom and Dad love it.
We start out by going upstairs a bit early, and taking a nice, long, warm bath. Sometimes we splash a lot, and sometimes we don’t, but we always love to brush our teeth (especially now that we have Angry Bird toothbrushes with suction cups on them!) and we love to play with wash clothes.
We all have our favorite tub-toy. Riley has a submarine that he rinses everyone with. Tessa, however, prefers silverware in her bath. She has a habit of collecting as many spoons as she can and bringing them upstairs and dumping them all into the tub. Sometimes, she brings up a few forks and plastic knives too. Who knew that so much silverware was needed in the tub. Emmett is a bit more easygoing, and although he doesn’t have one specific toy he needs for the tub, he likes to have a wash cloth and a swimming mermaid.
Once we are all dried off, we listen to jazz. Tessa loves to pretend to play the drums. Riley is more focused on the horn section. And Emmett is the dancer. He makes sure that the lights are on and there is nothing blocking the glass from the windows so that he can watch himself dance.
After a couple of good songs, we adjourn to the hall way, where we play Roar. This game consists of Daddy hiding in our rooms and once we find him, he runs after us yelling, Roar! We would prefer that this game go on for most of the night, but apparently Daddy can’t continue yelling for that long.
After Roar, we all gather in Riley and Tessa’s room, where we read books. Right now, our favorites are Dinosaurs Before Dark and Green Eggs and Ham. Emmett, who has something like a photographic memory, has almost all of the words in Green Eggs and Ham memorized. Because of this, he likes to read some of the book to us! Tessa also likes Captain Underpants, and when she pick it, she yells “Captain Pants! Captain Pants!”
You would think that this would be close to the end of a somewhat lengthy nighttime routine. You would, however, be wrong. After a few stories, we retreat to our respective rooms. And then we have another round of stories. Emmett, usually, goes to bed after his own, personal story time. Sometimes he asks to sing Old MacDonald, at which point he runs through every animal known to man. And sometimes he also adds people he knows. But, for the most part, it is one story and out.
Riley, one the other hand, is the king of stall tactics. After a few stories, not just one, he has to be tucked in just right. Then he has to have his toys and nightlights arranged just-so. Then he needs hugs and kisses. Then he needs a drink of milk. Then he needs a drink of water. Then he needs to brush his teeth again. Tessa, meanwhile, copies everything that Riley does. So, in each instance, Mom and Dad get hit twice with all of these requests. If Mom or Dad put Riley and Tessa to bed without fulfilling all of these requests, they are more likely to stay up and argue with each other. It is not uncommon for Mom or Dad to return multiple times to their room to retrieve Riley’s toys from Tessa’s crib (why does he keep putting them in there?), or to give a crying Riley a soothing kiss after Tessa bit his toe (again, why does Riley keep sticking his feet into her crib?).
It is also not uncommon for Mom or Dad to come in after naptime to see every single loose object in the room transported into Tessa’s crib. We are talking about every stuffed animal, all books and toys, each and every blanket, all of the clothes in the dresser, and the wipes from the top of the dresser (all pulled out of the then-almost-full wipe container). After the first time this crib hording occurred, Dad made Riley help put everything away, and he told Riley that if he put everything back into Tessa’s crib again, he would be in big trouble. The next day, no joke, Mom went into their room after nap to find that Riley again horded all of the goods. But, this time, instead of putting them into the crib he piled them up just next to her crib. He was very proud of this. “Look, Mom, I didn’t put the stuff into the crib!” We explained that it doesn’t matter where he puts the stuff, he isn’t ever to pile up all of the clothes from the dresser or de-stuff the wipes, regardless of where this event were to occur. So far, so good. Except for the blankets. Why Tessa needs 5 blankets in her crib at once, we don’t know, but we are sure Riley has a good reason for it.
We can’t believe that our little T-Bone is going to be two-years-old next week. It’s crazy! It seems like she is much older than that, but it doesn’t feel like she’s been home for two full years. Amazing. We’ll let you know after next week how her birthday went. She asked for an elephant cake for her party, so stay tuned to see if she gets it.
Pigs Out
Leave a Reply