Channeling Her Inner Rockette

I love to curl up with Miss A is in her twin-size white wooden bed, beneath the painted clouds on the ceiling, and snuggle at bedtime. She likes to put her arm across me. Of course I know this is her way of pinning me down and making sure I don’t sneak off under the guise of “Mommy will be right back,” but it’s still endearing.

There are so many little signature things my girls do that I’m already starting to forget. Heck I can’t even remember what I ate for breakfast yesterday. I also can’t remember the last time I did any scrapbooking and, who am I kidding, mommy blog this may be pegged but this blog is really more of a creative outlet for me than a true diary of their childhood milestones. There are little things about big sister Miss C as a toddler that have slipped my mind and I’m afraid may be lost forever. We watched a DVD of Miss C from her third Christmas not long ago and I had forgotten how much she loved her paci and how she said “yiyo” for video. But I have written about Miss A’s kicking wall.

Some kids have loveys and some have favorite stuffed animals. My kid? Likes to kick. (Too bad she has not yet taken to soccer because the girl has a power kick.)

The other night as we lay in bed Miss A kicked her bare foot against the cool wall.

“Mommy this is still my kicking wall, but I’m afraid to kick it too hard sometimes. I might knock a hole in it!”

Of course I explained to her that she could still kick her wall, even though she is getting to be a big girl, if it helped her fall asleep. Hey if it helped me relax, I’d kick a wall, too.

I couldn’t believe I had almost forgotten about the kicking wall.

If we ever sell our little ranch style house here in the ‘burbs I’m going to miss the cheery yellow kicking wall. I’m going to miss the painted clouds on the ceiling in Miss A’s room, which was the nursery for both girls, and I already know I’m going to miss snuggling at bedtime.

Mr. Sandman 911

I was talking about kids’ bedtimes with another mom the other day and she told me her 6-year-old is in bed at 7:45 and lights are out at 8 on school nights.

After I had a disturbing, yet satisfying, fantasy about smacking her, I realized I’ve been drinking my own bedtime Kool Aid. I say the girls’ bedtime is at 8, but really that’s just when they are getting good and hyper tired and Miss A is starting to climb on to furniture and scream Hannah Montana songs and I start asking threatening them to put on their pajamas. Then we usually crawl in bed about 8:15 for a bedtime story and it’s about 8:45 before anyone is asleep. Miss A, especially, is a night owl and has been known to wander out into the hallway well after 9.

Last night hubby and I were determined to get the girls in bed by 8 as Miss C’s been fighting a cold. We have a beautiful classical music CD collection that I listened to while I was pregnant with both girls that Miss A even refers to as the “night nights music.” I started playing the CD pretty early and the girls were in their pajamas by 7:45. Teeth were even brushed before 8. Oh the insanity!

As I read the girls a Beatrix Potter book, The Tailor of Gloucester, hereby known as the longest freaking book in the history of children’s literature with words on every page, such as pippin, that I had to stop and define and couldn’t help but do so in a fake British accent, I noticed Miss C’s breathing was becoming heavier. I tucked Miss A into her bed and told her I’d be back in five minutes  to check on her.

Ten minutes later Miss C called out that she wanted the hubby to come check on her.

Twenty minutes later, after the hubby had checked on Miss C, I peeked in on Miss A. She was awake but in a thumb sucking trance so I snuck down the hallway to Miss C’s room, certain she’d be sound asleep.

“Mommy come lay down with me. I can’t fall asleep,” Miss C begged in her most pitiful voice as I popped my head in her room.

“Miss C I thought you were really, really tired. You need lots of rest so you feel good for Halloween night.”

“I know mommy, but we went to bed too early. I can’t sleep if I’m in bed too early. This is what happens!”

Kids…can’t get them to go to sleep before 8:30 p.m., can’t pump them full of Benadryl.

What time do your kids go to bed and what are their ages? I don’t get Miss C up until about 6:50 in the morning since I don’t take her to school until 7:40, so I supposed I could get her up earlier, but that’s my morning solitude with uninterrupted coffee time and it’s precious people.

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