Story time

We have a new routine at bed time. It used to be, not so long ago, that Owyn went to bed before Rhys. Tracy or I would give Owyn an bottle and tuck him in, then I would put Rhys to bed, half an hour later.

Two months ago, or so, Owyn started staying up and playing in his crib at bed time. We moved his rack time back to the same as Rhys'. In the last two weeks we have modified things again.

We take the boys up at the same time. Tracy gets Owyn ready and I get Rhys ready. He goes potty, puts on his jammies, feeds his fish and picks his stories. About the time he is done, Owyn shows up, grinning from ear to ear.

I sit on the bed and Owyn climbs up. He sits down between my legs, leans back against me, and pulls the blankets up over us. Rhys hands Owyn the stories and climbs up, tucking himself in on my left side. Tracy sits on the food of the bed.

Owyn gets to pick which story we read first, there are always two.

When I finish the second story, with many, many interuptions, Owyn says, "Bye Daddy", gives me a kiss and climbs down. Rhys turns on his turtle night light and hits the button for blue (there is also green and a disturbing, corpse like brown/orange). I turn off the light and lay beside Rhys for a few minutes.

I always tell him that I will stay for five minutes. We count down, five, four, three, two, one, zero. He likes it when I make the zero sign because he can stick his spindly little arm in the circle of my fingers. He always talks me into staying past five minutes.

We talk about the next day. He always wants to know how many schools he gets to go to. He gets "two schools" on every day except Friday. His second question is always "Daddy pick-a me up?" Two days I pick him up at "two school", the other days Tracy or I will pick him up at day care.

When it is finally time for me to leave I give him a kiss and a hug, find whichever of twenty stuffed animals on his bed he has decided he "needs" and stand up. On my way out the door I turn of the light on the fish tank and he says "Goodnight Fish, Goodnight Daddy". "Goodnight Rhys, I love you. I'll see you tomorrow. Sleep well."