Night Routine

A few people have commented about Collin's night routine so I thought I would share it with everyone.

After he eats dinner, we take him out of his high chair for him to play on the second floor a little. He will either then start to crawl up the stairs to the third floor or follow me up there to his room. I give him a choice of what he wants to wear that night and then he brings it along with a new diaper to daddy who came up the stairs behind us and is sitting near the couch on the third floor. Collin and I then go into the bathroom to give him a bath. I bathe him while he is either shooting hoops with his tub basketballs or playing with his bath numbers. I towel dry him and then he runs naked to daddy. When he gets near his diaper, he sits on it and lays down waiting for daddy to put his diaper on and then get him dressed for bed time. I bring twi tooth brushes out for both of them to brush their teeth. Most of the time, Collin does brush his own teeth. A few times, he launches the toothbrush over the gate at the top of the stairs. He then will play with his toys for a few minutes.

When he gets ready for bed, he will start getting a little fussy, walk into his room and shut the door where I am waiting to read some books to him. If he did not give daddy a kiss before he went into his room, I take him back out to give daddy and kiss and then we go back into his room. I have a lot of his books on a shelf he can reach. He will grab one or two of them and then climb onto the lazy boy chair next to me so I can read him the book. Most of the time, he turns the pages for me.....sometimes it's a few pages at a time. He will start rubbing eyes his which means he is getting REALLY tired and close to getting ready for me to put him in his crib. A few times, he has climbed out of the chair and walked to his crib to hold his hands up waiting for me to put him in there.

I put him in his crib and he finds his favorite stuffed monkey to hug. I kiss two of my fingers and then put them to his head and then tell him to sleep tight. Sometimes I do this to his monkey too and he thinks it's really funny. I tell him good night, turn his light off and walk out. That's it. He sure has come a long, long way from the nights that he would need to have a pacifier, be rocked to sleep or need milk right before bed. Phew....I am not as I tired too because it does not take as much effort.