About two weeks ago I decided to start "story time" for the boys.
Story time is after the boys are all ready for bed and I have spent about 20-30 minutes reading to them, they pick out some books and get to sit in their beds and read until bedtime.
I remember when I was growing up my parents would allow each of us kids to have story time in our beds. I remember loving it. It was so relaxing. There was something so comforting about being snuggled up in my bed, with my sisters all around me, reading some of my favorite books. It's something I have never forgotten. I want the boys to have that same memory.
I knew this would be an easy thing for Ruy to do but Liam...let me just say that "staying where Mommy says" is something we have really been working on lately. He is really good about staying in bed once the lights have been turned out. But "story time" is a lot different than that. I had put off starting this routine because I was kind of dreading dealing with his reaction to it. I know...I know...I am the parent...I should be in control of my toddler. It's a work in progress :)
I shouldn't have put it off so long. He actually did really well with it the first night! I grabbed a bunch of his favorite cardboard books, sat him in his bed, and very excitedly told him "he was going to have story time in his bed!" I told him he had to stay in his bed and read all his books until Mommy came and told him to go to sleep. He got out of the bed twice to come see what I was doing, but I just put him back in his bed and told him again to stay in bed until I came to him. The third time he got up, he wanted to tell me he was really tired. It was about 8:40PM at that point (his normal bedtime) so I kissed them goodnight, tucked them in, and that was that. They read in their beds for about 30 minutes that night.
We haven't done story time every night since then, nor will we start doing it every night, but on the nights we have done it, Liam has done better with it every time. The last night we did it, he never even got out of bed. Liam still needs a lot of work with "staying where I tell him to stay" but this is progress. Progress for him and progress for me. I say for me because it's my job to train him and to teach him how to obey. If he is not obeying, then I need to change something that I am doing. So that is something I have been working on with him lately.
Well that was a little peek into a new routine we have started. Does anyone else have any nighttime routines? I'd love to hear about it!
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| Reading his Veggie Tales book upside down. |
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| He always has so much energy...except for when he wakes up from his nap...then he is super cranky. |
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| Camo pants...Star Wars Book...makes for one happy 7 year old. |
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| And because Baby Girl was sleeping when I took those pictures, I just added this super cute picture of her because well...it's just so cute :) |
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