There’s Comfort in Routine

They say that routine is comforting for kids. Take, for example, what it takes to get KC settled down in bed for the night. After her bath (Or, lately, shower. Sheesh.) we watch some TV. Usually Dora and/or Diego. (Televisión fantastico!) At the end of the show we start the warnings: “Ok, time to read some books! Books or bed! Books or bed! Hurry up! Pick one!”

KC goes to the shelf and picks out a book for me to read to her on the couch. She’s very particular lately about it being me who reads. Not sure why exactly, but if you ask her if daddy can read the book, it’s almost always, “No. Mommy read it.” We read. We place the book on the coffee table, because no way will she put it back on the bookshelf. It. Goes. On. The. Table. Period. We read about 3 or 4 books in this fashion.

Then it’s time to get her IN the bed. Lately she’s been decent about accepting the shift from living room to bedroom. Some nights she whines and cries about it a lot: “I not GOING TO BED!” Despite the protesting, we push her along (or carry, whatever) and deposit her in the crib with favorite blanket and the latest favorite toy (A baby doll from cousin Steph. Thank you cousin Steph!) At this point it’s all me, because…now there are more books. Of course there are.

Yes, more books. No less than 9 books currently reside in KC’s crib. The number has grown as of late and, stupidly, I have not edited the collection. It seems the magic routine to get her quiet and ok with saying goodnight for good is for me to read all 9 of the books one after the other. No skipping any of them. So long as I do this, she’s cool. I say goodnight, see you in the morning, blow kisses…aaaand…scene.

I used to try and get away with reading only a few of the books, but she’d almost always yell for me to come back and “Read the rabbit book! Rabbit book!” Or, sometimes, instead of books it would be her yelling for us to come back and fix the blanket: “My foot came out! My foot came out!” (Well quit kicking your feet then, Baby Einstein.) I finally just figured I’d better read all the books and it’s worked. So far. It’s a good thing they are very short books. Not a single one lasts more than a minute and some are barely 20 words total so it’s not so bad really. Although, when she’s old enough for Harry Potter, we’ll have to discuss some time constraints on the bedtime routine. I’m no speed reader.

You watch. Now that I’ve written about the book routine’s success, it will backfire on me and she’ll up the ante. That’s parenting karma. If something is going really well don’t talk about it. Definitely don’t brag about it. As a matter of fact, you might want to consider not even thinking about it. Routines are good and kids love them, but something they love even more is keeping us parents on our toes.

Did I mention she also sleeps through the night almost all of the time? No, I didn’t. Because of The Karma. Oh. wait. Dammit.

****

Updated! Breaking News! Proof of miracles and leprechauns and what-not! Last night KC requested that Ted put her to bed. I kid you not. This is unprecedented! Apparently karma works in mysterious ways too. Daddy read books, KC went right to sleep, Daddy did a little victory dance, Mommy enjoyed the first night in a loooooong-ass time not reciting the same 9 stories she’s got memorized enough to read in the dark. Will be curious to see if tonight it’s “business as usual”.