Bedtime routines

Totally off the subject I intend to blog about, but little Lexi has sooooo many nicknames and you never know which one Stas is going to insist we call her. She's referred to as My Sister, My Lexia, Lexi, Alexi, Lexia, boo-boo, and so many more. Oh and if you ask Stas what Lexi's name is she yells AH-LEX-EEE-AH!

I digress.

Putting Lexi to bed has never been easier. Scratch that. It's never been more fun. It was definitely easier when all I had to do was nurse her to sleep. But now she's a participant in the bedtime routine. And she follows direction so well. After bath and pjs and teeth brushing, I tell her to get a book and her baby. She grabs a book and her baby and heads down the hall to her room and starts climbing into the armchair for story time. We read and then she flips through the book on her own. After that she climbs down, throws her friends in the crib, marches over to turn on her sleep sheep, and then stands under the light switch, waiting for me to lift her up to turn it off. Once the lights are out, baby wants down in her crib. She lays down, waits for her blanket and book and then is ready to be alone.

I mean, could that get any more fun? And easy? I love it.

Bedtime for Stasa is a bit different. She starts out bartering for two or twenty books. Once we finally land on a single book (which is almost always a Berenstain Bears book - why, oh why do those books have so many ever loving words?), we all have to cuddle up in her bed. Usually at this point it's just her and Tom and I join them after I've finished putting Lexi to bed. Is that weird that we do Lexi's bedtime 1-on-1 and Stasa's as a group? Maybe. But I think we do that because that's how her bedtime routine was when she moved to the big girl room and we didn't want things to change once Lexi arrived.

Anyway, by the time I arrive, Tom and Stas are mid-story. After we finish the book, it's lights out, music on, and sayonara daddy. Every single night Stasa asks, "Mommy can you stay with me for a coupla songs?" And every night I do, though most nights it's more like 5 or 8 songs. During that time we lay in her bed and talk about our days. Sometimes we change it up and play shadow puppets with the light cast from her night light. Lately we've been watching short You Tube videos of fireworks displays to prepare her for the big show on July 4th.

After I leave her room (with lots of "No stay! I need you!"), she comes out maybe 5 minutes later to announce that she needs to go potty. Every.single.night. Now we just tell her to go on her own and she does and then trots back to her room.

I think things are definitely going to have to change once Lexi's in a big girl bed, though we have quite a long time before that happens.