I Love Bedtime

J & I pretty much split the household and parental duties pretty nicely. We usually don't even need to have a conversation about it, I just pick up where I feel it's necessary and he does the same. I make dinner, he cleans it up (sometimes). And vice versa. I clean the living room, he runs to grab the vacuum to follow me. And since we've moved in over here, he puts L to bed, and I put C to bed. We'll each have some hang-out time in the other's room, collecting kisses and saying goodnight, but for the reading-until-they-pass-out time, we have our places.

I know, from listening to L at breakfast the next morning, that J repeats a lot of L's favorite stories from, "When he was a little boy" over and over. Sometimes they're the same, sometimes not, but L definitely has those stories by memory and has volume after volume in his Daddy collection. I think it's wonderful, and J shared many of those stories with C when she was little.

While they're in there talking about the adventures on Maple Drive, getting in trouble for...whatever, how he got this scar, or that scar, etc., C and I sip our tea and usually start by talking. I've already got the recap of her school day as soon as I pick her up from school (another favorite part of my day), but somehow, when she and I are cuddled up in her bed, (which, by the way, is the most comfortable one in the house - unfair!), the brief summary given after school stretches and the details come. She asks questions about things that are on her mind, we talk about what girl trips we'll take this summer, I read to her from her bible and tell her my favorite parts and what Jesus means right there, and so on. Sometimes she reads to me, if it's not too late. Tonight I even brought my laptop and we did online multiplication flash cards. Then we cuddle and tell each other how much we love each other, I try not to fall asleep in her bed, and then leave her to her dreams. (Then, usually, I go back into L's room and give him one more kiss while he's sleeping.)

I love these days. And I love bedtime.