Bedtime Routine

Our kids love bedtime routine. They don't love going to bed, but they love everything leading up to it. It really is the highlight of their day, so I thought I would blog about our nightly bed time routine. 

It all starts out with us telling the kids that it is bath time and they literally RUN to the tub! If we don't watch Caden close enough he will jump right in the tub fully clothed. 

 The kids love bath time because they get to play with all their toys. Their favorites are Spot, Bubbles, and Addy (the dogs). We only have 3 rules in bath time:

1. No getting water out of the tub.
2. No getting Daddy or Mommy wet
3. No drinking the water.

If the kids break any of these rules, Daddy squirts them with the squirt gun. They pretend to hate it, but really they love it.

 And sometimes in the middle of bath time Kayla needs to take a potty break.

 After playing in the tub we finally start to wash them. Makayla insists that I wash her, and Daddy washed Cader-tot. We like to experiment with crazy hair styles.

After baths, we get them all snuggled in their towels and then take them to get dressed in their jammies.

Part of the routine is for Makayla to pick out her pull-up. It takes her quite a while to decide among "nice monsters, Ariel, or Minnie Mouse". Seriously, don't you wish you were a kid again and that picking out your pull up was the hardest decision of your day? Makayla insists on picking out her jammies which takes another few minutes for that tough decision.

 Once the kids are in their jammies, we start cleaning up, while singing the clean up song from Barney. Caden is not the best at cleaning up. In fact he tends to make more messes along the way.

 And sometimes the kids fight over baby. We don't stop them, we just take more pictures.

 Then it's time for milk. The kids used to drink bottles, but now they just take little sips of milk.

 We ask them if they want to brush their teeth and they both scream with excitement. Seriously, our kids LOVE to brush their teeth. Sometimes we have to hide the toothpaste because they love brushing so much. Sometimes in the day they disappear and I find them in the bathroom brushing. Daddy helps them get toothpaste and Kayla tells him, "I want a big one" every time. If it is too small, she cries until we give her more.

 The kids are pretty good at brushing on their own for a minute.

 Then we step in to finish.

 Makayla is the cutest when she finishes brushing. She rinses her tooth brush and then taps it twice on the sink... just like Tyler and I do. It is so funny to notice the little things we do that they pick up on.

 Recently she has tired to rinse her mouth and spit, but she doesn't quite know how to do it and ends up just swallowing the water. It cracks us up every time.

 Then it's time for the first round of kisses. This is my favorite part of the night because the kids give each other a big kiss on the lips.

 After kisses, Caden waives and says, "nigh nigh sis-a"(night, night, sister). Nothing can melt your heart faster than that!

Kayla gets her hair dry while staring at herself in the mirror and the other one takes Caden to his room to start reading books. We trade off nights, so this particular night it was my turn to get Caden to bed and Daddy got Kay-bugs.

 The kids always get to pick their own books to read that night and they certainly have their favorites.

After a few minutes Kayla comes rushing in to give the second round of kisses. 

 We finish reading books, I give Caden so many kisses that he pushes me away and says, "don" (don't), and then I tuck him into bed. He has to have his binkie and blankie with him to fall asleep.

Meanwhile Daddy  is reading Kayla books. Makayla is getting so good at recognizing all her letters because Daddy is so good to review them every night before they start books. 

After books we usually ask Kayla to tell us about her day, and her favorite part of the day. Her favorite part usually involves Addy (her cute little friend at daycare). We kiss her good night and tuck her into bed with her blankie. Kay bugs still has to suck on the corner of her blankie to fall asleep. 

Then Tyler and I have a few hours to relax and watch tv before we head to bed. But before Tyler and I go to bed, we sneak in to check on the kids. We give them one more kiss and then just stand there and wonder how we got so lucky!

It really is the simple things in life that mean the most.