Bedtime

For me, some of the most hectic yet most endearing moments occur during bedtime. My kids have a very hard time getting up in the morning so if I don't stick with the schedule they really drag the next day (and so do I). I also like to have enough time to read stories, sing a song, snuggle and just visit. Austin has outgrown most of that but he has added goofing around with his sister (they are just enjoying each others company), Alexis likes to visit and snuggle, Luke and Kate like all of the above and Ellie likes to stay up as late as possible.

Sometimes Kate will hum herself to sleep. It is the sweetest thing. Saturday night Kate sang me a song that she made up as she went. It went like this:

There were five balloons.
One was rainbow colored, one wasn't, one was rainbow colored, one wasn't.
Then they got away!
Then they went to the store and got five more balloons.
One was rainbow colored, one wasn't, one was rainbow colored, one wasn't.
They were going to have a par-r-ty, a par-r-t-y, a par-r-t-y.
And get lots of party stuff and a cake.
They got their car and drived under and over the great, big tree.
Then they were at the par-r-r-t-y!

(The next morning she added the following:)

Then they stopped in front of the car.
They went up on the tree
and then went in the house
and had a par-r-t-y at the friends house.
Their mom and dad picked them up
and they had a good time.

The end!

I love when bedtime brings such special gifts!


When I was young and sharing a room with my siblings, my dad would go to sleep at 9:00 every night, unless of course we kept him up by giggling too much. This would end up with him checking on us and upon looking in the room, suddenly finding us fast asleep or hiding in the closet.

Most of my siblings had an ongoing problem with wetting the bed. So, my parents were taken in with a product that was promised to help stop these accurances. Here is how it worked: a floodlight was placed up above the head and a mat with a pillowcase covering it would be placed underneath the victim. When the mat got wet, the light would turn on and a buzzer would go off. This was not a quiet buzzer either, it was the kind that could wake the dead. Of course, it had to be. But, sharing a room with two sisters, two spotlights and two buzzers, it often made bedtime a crazy and very entertaining time. We laughed about it then and we laugh about it now. I also have to say that it worked! In the long run we got much better sleep! Thanks Mom and Dad!