Bedtime Routine

Below are the components of Carrie's bed-time routine.  All components are required to be fulfilled under Carrie's management (make no mistake, she is the boss of bed-time).  Don't attempt to skip a single step or watch out!

First, there is teeth-brushing. Sounds simple, right?  Wrong.  Carrie must first select which of 3 toothpastes she wants to use. This decision process usually takes a few minutes.  After toothpaste is applied to her brush, it must be returned with the other toothpastes and all must be lined up properly. This takes awhile because she keeps knocking them over by accident. 

After the toothpaste is all lined up, we brush our teeth. Carrie must brush her own teeth and usually expresses her displeasure if you attempt to assist.  We must then drink water and wash our hands.  All of these exercises require the use of water, of course.  Carrie, however, likes to turn the faucet down to a slow drip so that only a few drops are procured which of course is not enough to wash hands, etc.  An argument then ensues which results in at least one temper tantrum.  After she calms down, she is ready to jump down from her stool.  But we can't just jump down.  We must say 'Ready Set Go' and then go down, with no help from Mommy or Daddy. 

After teeth brushing is diaper changing and pj time.  Carrie must pick out her own diaper. We must pull the entire basket of diapers out so that she can sort threw them all and locate either a 'Cookie Monster' or 'Elmo with glasses' diaper. The other diapers will not do (Ernie, Grover, forget it).  After that, she must select her own p.j.'s. This is often a hard decision and takes a few minutes.  Then, just when you are ready to get her diaper changed and her p.j.'s on, she decides to take you on a wild goose chase which usually results in her hiding in the corner of our closet.  After some convincing, we finally get back to her room and get her dressed.

2 books are required and she must pick them out. Once you start reading one to her, she will take the other one and start reading it at the same time.  So you are essentially reading to yourself. If you try to skip pages, however, because you think she isn't paying attention, she will bust you pretty quick.  This is annoying especially when she picks out annoying or long books like Rhymes around the World or Ladybug Girl. After the books are read, she has to stack them up on the floor herself – you can’t just throw them on the floor.

Then its 'Pray to God' time. Carrie likes to thank God for things like people as well as inanimate objects like paci's, etc.  She is very thankful.

After books, comes story-time in bed (at last -we made it into the bed!!).  You must make up a story to tell her usually about Lightning McQueen,  bugs, Carrie.  Then, Sock Monkey must do a thorough search of her room for monsters.  He must check everywhere including in the bathroom, closet, toy chest, etc.

In addition to the above-mentioned activities, the following tasks must be completed before bed-time is considered complete by Carrie:

·         She must have her socks.

·         You must wash her paci’s.

·         The light must be turned down low.

·         The fan must be turned off by Daddy’s hand (ouch).

·         The blankets must be folded the proper way at the end of the bed.

·         The stuffed animals (all 50 of them) must be arranged in her bed appropriately.

·         Her pillows (both of them) must be stacked.
·         She must have two tissues delivered to her (why? Who knows - they end up shredded in little pieces the next morning)

·         She must receive a kiss, a hug and then a kissing attack.

My daughter is a Type ‘A’ project manager – now where did she get this from?