Experts say that you should have a nightly routine involving 4 separate structured event to help your child settle down and prepare themselves for "night-night" time. Bethany and I try our best to keep this going; to all the non or not yet parents out there, it may sound like a lot of work, and it is; but you have to understand the work is part of the pleasure. I just finished "putting Nolan down" and here is how it went:
I asked him to clean up his toys in the living room, followed by a 30 second whine, everyone helping as he expects and insists while singing "clean up clean up, everybody everywhere." Next is the gathering of pillow, blanket, the stuffed animal of the day, and of course the passy. Nolan stops to turn on the light to the top of the stairs and parents follow as he slowly walks up saying, "all by myself Mommy, all by myself Daddy." 5 minutes later we have reached the top and we direct him into the bathroom to wash up and brush brush(notice the toddler language). Some nights Nolan puts up a fight to do the cheeeese and awwwwe as either Mom or Dad work on the pearly whites, but tonight was a good night, he actually enjoyed it. Finally we are in the room and quickly prop him on the changing table as to avoid distraction by one of the 562 toys scattered throughout the room. As I start to take off his socks he states, "Naky Daddy, Naky." He loves to take off all his clothes and run around screaming that(I hope this changes before he goes to school). As we get down to changing the diaper I playfully let him know that the wipes will be cold and he lets out a belly laugh that could brighten your darkest of days. Night night clothes are a big deal for a 2 year old and tonight is one of his favs; the basketball outfit. I throw it on him as fast as I can and kiss him on the cheek. He immediately yells, "Pokey Little Puppy"
which is the book he wants to read and I just have to say, when he says "Pokey Little Puppy" in his little up and down voice, it makes me grin so big(you have to hear it). I put him down, he runs, jumps, and rolls into his toddler bed with a proud feeling of accomplishment. The first thing he does at this point is find all 3 of his passy's and curls up, waiting for Mom or Dad to put on his blankets. As story time unfolds he points and laughs about as much as he gets distracted. After we are done I ask him what song he wants to sing and like always he goes right into, "umm, ummm, ummmm" It is so great. I finally give him some help by suggesting twinkle, twinkle. He closes his eyes because he knows I will ask him too and I start my beautiful tune. Afterwards we pray and I say goodnight as I kiss him on the forehead. He shouts Jesus, Jesus, meaning he wants me to sing Jesus Loves Me. I can't resist even though we tell him only one song every night. As I wrap up I close the door n my way out.

If this was not too boring to finish you might be saying, "wow, what a lot of work...they do this every night?" And my response is...wait until you have kids. How do I know you don't have kids? First, you probably wouldn't have time to read this and second, parents know that even writing this post about it makes me feel like a million buck.
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