Bedtime

Bedtime is one of my favorite/most dreaded times.  For obvious reasons, I'm plain tuckered out by 7 o'clock and am literally counting down the seconds for little bodies to hit the hay.  On the other hand, I LOVE freshly bathed little bodies in pajamas and I really enjoy reading to them.  We read lots of easy storybooks.  But lately, Z has been letting me read condensed novels to her and it is a great time! We just finished Anne of Green Gables and then watched the movie together.  Zannah is now determined to change her name to Anne with an E, because it is "much more romantic".  She also really liked Swiss Family Robinson (we had many discussions on how we would survive in a similar situation), The Secret Garden, and The Little Princess.  The latter two had Z convinced it wouldn't be too shabby to be an orphan.  She packed up her things and hit the sidewalk several times during those books.    

Max will fall alseep promptly at 7, if we are done with our routine by then.  This may seem early, but the boy is up at 6:30 and never stops jumping, spinning, rolling, hopping, and cart-wheeling, unless I turn a show on or it is bedtime.   He also is obsessed with dressing up, so usually sleeps with some kind of apparatus on.

Zannah on the other hand doesn't require as much sleep.  She has a really hard time shutting it down. She is in her room at the same time as Max, but doesn't fall asleep till 9:30 or later.  This is her drawing/sewing/creating/imagination time.  The following picture is a common scene, though her creations are never repeated.  She is very busy during that 2 1/2 hours. She also has boycotted her bed for the last few months.

 We have made NO progress in the bed wetting arena. The money bribe didn't do it.  I know I should cut drinks off early, but it just isn't a battle I'm ready to take on yet.  I swear our kids came to us with wills of iron forged in the Mountain of  Mordor.  Max sometimes wets his bed, comes into our room where I help him change and get a fresh pull-up on, and then gets in bed with us and wets our bed in the S-A-M-E night!  Sometimes he is soaking wet and his pull-up is bone dry, sometimes both of their pull-ups are soaking wet having performed their necessary job until morning when the kids pull them off and throw them face down on the carpet, which leads to me scrubbing the carpet and swearing under my breath because washing the sheets and blankets even if it is every other day is easier than carpet scrubbing.  I try not to remember the morning Max was taking his 3 lb pull-up to the garbage swinging it like a nunchuck and somehow the entire thing exploded all over the kitchen floor and walls.  I'm really hoping that last one is funny to me someday.