Bedtime rituals are important. Doubly so when children are involved.
We try to get the boys to bed at the same time each night. A critical component of bedtime is the picking of the all-important bedtime toy.
This, as you might imagine, is a toy you get to take with you to bedtime. There are a few rules:
- You have to have able to carry your bedtime toys yourself (to limit the number).
- No Legos are allowed on the couch in the boys’ room (to avoid spelunking for Lego).
- When it is time to go to bed all bedtime toys must go to overnight parking (a shelf across from the boys’ beds so they can’t play with their toys instead of sleeping).
Last night Sammy picked out a bedtime toy for me. He handed me the monster truck pictured above with great excitement. Then he took it back and ran into my room. I followed and he said, “Your overnight parking is here on this table (my bedside table). If you want to play with it in the night it’ll be right here. Declan and me can’t do that because our overnight parking isn’t next to our bed.”
He then laughed like a maniac and ran off.