Night Night
Alex and I have settled into a routine in our new home. I’m thankful that it has come so easily. For a few nights, I couldn’t get her to go to sleep, so I fell back on the only bedtime routine I knew; the one my father used to do with me.
Every night, it was my dad that tucked me in. And I couldn’t go to sleep until we went through the dialogue:
“Night night. Sleep tight. I love you. Don’t let the bed bugs bite.” And with a kiss, he would tuck me in and leave me to sleep.
One particular evening a few weeks ago, Alex was so distraught that it seemed there was nothing I could do to calm her. Out of desperation, I began to sing every children’s song I could think of. Finally, at “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star,” she calmed down and started to listen. I followed it with “Rock A Bye Baby,” then finished with my favorite song that my father used to sing to me, “You Are My Sunshine.”
And so, the bedtime routine became established.
The next night, as I tucked her in, she said in her tiny, tinkly voice, “Twinkle, twinkle, Mommy!” At first, I didn’t know what she was talking about, and as I moved towards the door, she became more persistent. “Twinkle, Mommy! Twinkle, twinkle!” So I leaned over her crib, took a deep breath, and sang.
“Rock Baby, Mommy!” And so came Rock A Bye. But it was truly bittersweet when she wanted to hear “Shunshine!”
So every night, I sing her to sleep with these three songs. To my delight, now she tries to sing along…
“Twinkle, tinkle, little TAR…how I….tinkle…what you ARE….”
After our three songs, I have to kiss her fingers, then her toes, on the top of her head, and a kiss for her nose…
It’s the little things like this that she will remember. It’s the little things like this that I enjoy most about being a mother.
June 30th, 2007 at 1:38 pm
You forgot about “good morning to you, good morning to you, good morning Miss Sunshine, good morning to you!” You got it from both of us-haha!