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Wednesday, June 30, 2010

No Mama Is An Island (But Daddy Might Be)

I keep forgetting to tell you guys...there's an awesome giveaway in progress over at my friend Melissa's blog.  It's for a very cool home internet security program, something we could probably all use.  But it ends today!  So head over to Peanut Butter in my Hair to read about the great product and company, and to enter to WIN!



Bedtime is sacred at our house.  (And I mean for more than my crazy tendency to cling tightly to early bedtimes.)

It happens the same way, night after night, and it works like this:

We wrangle two wound-tight girls into and out of the bathtub, and wrap them into fluffy towels. (Dark blue for Mia, yellow for Lauren -- this is non-negotiable.)  They waddle down the hallway to our bedroom, where they climb up to the bed, and wipe their wet little selves all over the quilt in an attempt at one last wrestling match.  Mia's newest addition to the post-bath lineup includes a snuggle with daddy while mama prods them to move and get your jammies on because it's getting late!  (All the while, it's maybe 7:04pm, but mama sees the end in sight and is tenacious in her early bedtime intentions.)

There may be a timeout or two peppered among the pajama and teethbrushing activities, because Mia is bound and determined to drag the process out as long as possible.  She's quite the wiley 4-year-old.  Both girls then scale the drawers to the bathroom countertop, and jockey for the right to dance before the mirror.  They are denied, and get their teeth polished with magical jewel-detecting toothbrushes.  And then: the pie`ce de re`sistance -- Story Time. 

Mia begs for mama, Lauren begs for mama, and we do a storytime shuffle that includes promises of daddy reading stories for the girl who doesn't get to have her mama.  He's not inferior in any way but for some reason, the girls only want me, all the time.  So one girl deigns to accept a story and lullaby from him, while the other girl sits on my lap and soaks up the mama-love.  We each put our respective girls to bed, and high-tail it to the couch to claim our reward: silence and stillness.

But, something's changed recently.  On an almost nightly basis, the girls...the girls...they...

They now want their dad instead of me. 

They beg for daddy.  They cry for him.  It's just not right, I tell you!  I don't expect it to last forever, because their tastes can change with the wind.  Soon, I think, I'll be in favor again, but for now?  It's been killing me slowly. 

Lauren sobs if Justin isn't able to snuggle her to sleep, and when Lauren wants him, Mia wants him too.  I'm left sad and lonely on the couch, mourning my loss while a few precious memories of baby-scented-hair linger in my mind.  I'm almost able to feel a tiny dimpled hand brushing across my own as we rock in the chair.  I can hear Justin closing the door to Mia's room and dashing to the other door, where a sweet voice is calling him to 'tnuggle in da wockin' chaiw.'  I can feel the warmth of a small head nestled in my neck, and I want to cry with the loss of my nightly routine....

And then the commercial break is over on tv, and I get to watch almost an entire episode of The Bachelorette while Justin does the heavy lifting. 

Not bad a'tall.

8 comments:

  1. Some say "When God closes a door, he opens a window." I say, "When Daddy does bedtime, Mommy gets to catch up on tv!"

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  2. Is it okay that snorted in laughter at the end, because I did. With our first son we didn't have a PVR (DVR, or whatever the heck they are known as), but with our second we have it, and it makes the time we spend with them more luxurious knowing we won't miss a thing.

    That said, we have VERY early routines at our house too. They are both awesome and terrible. Awesome in that we have a full night ahead of us to enjoy as adults and terrible in that we are stuck at home in the summer months when I'd much rather be out enjoying the warm evenings.

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  3. HUGE smile over here!

    My 2-year old is a master manipulator already. Whichever one of us is about to do his bedtime routine, he insists on the other. But I share your glee when the honor falls to my husband. There is something so delicious about putting my feet up and catching up on my DVR list while my husband is reading another storybook.

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  4. Daddy is the bedtime hero at our house. It has been for a while. When the switch happened, Fynn was maybe 8 or 9 months, it nearly killed me! And it's been Daddy from the beginning for Paige. Honestly, now it's kind of nice... ;)
    Your bedtime routine sounds so similar to ours!

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  5. Lovely! Catch up on your t.v. and books while you can...I am sure Mama will be at the top of the totem pole again soon!
    Best,
    Tina

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  6. Enjoy the moments for yourself for as long as they last. :)

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  7. My daughter is still very much about Mommy for final bed time hugs but with the light summer nights she has been staying awake and calling for Daddy - because she knows he will come and sit and talk with her past bed time and Mommy won't :-)

    Beautiful post

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  8. This is great - our girls go back and forth on who they prefer!

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Hmm...And how did that make you FEEL?