Bedtime Routine

Bedtime in our house is usually extremely routine. Paul and I believe that it helps the girls calm down and transition into bedtime because they know exactly what to expect next. For example, after dinner we have a little play time with Daddy, then I take the girls upstairs for their baths while Paul does the dishes, and then he joins me upstairs to put the girls in their pjs, brush their teeth, read some stories, say their prayers and tuck them in. It works for us. We like this routine and our girls usually go down without a hitch!

And then there are nights that the routine flies out of the window completely! We've gotten home a little later in the evening and picked something up from the drive-through window at Chick-fil-A because I've been too busy all day to prepare anything. We feed the girls and look at the kitchen clock only to realize that it's already 15 minutes past their bedtime. We quickly look at one another and justify waiting to bathe them until in the morning. As they're finishing their meals, I'll zoom upstairs and grab some pjs out of each of their rooms, run them downstairs, diaper and dress the girls and then we allow them 10-15 minutes of "calm down" time. Sometimes this is a few books, others it's a few minutes of cartoons...


and then there's this...


I don't know what it is, but my girls love to wrestle! And by wrestle, I mean Eva laying on top of Izzy and dragging her around while Izzy giggles. Don't worry, I'm always right there to step in if I here the giggles turn into whimpers (with a camera in hand, of course) but most of the time, Izzy is happy to wrestle her big sister right back.

So anyway, after a few minutes of "calm down" time, we promptly take them upstairs to brush their teeth and put them down. The nights when our bedtime routine is stuck to religiously are definitely the easiest and less stressful nights, but there's something about the off nights that's pretty fun too!