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We have a little artist in our family. Kara, instead of going to bed, has been painting. I don't want to discourage her creativity, but I would like bedtime to be observed by the members of my family.
She painted a starry night with shooting stars and a big moon, a girl standing at a railing with a vine and a flowering tree.
Lately, she has painted everything in sight. Plus, she started a yarn rug, kind of like latch-hook except we don't have a latch hook.
My sister, the one with the 5-month-old baby, has asked the Facebook world how to set up a bedtime routine for babies.
I'd like to say we mastered that when our kids were babies, but if you read this blog with any regularity, you'll recognize right away that bedtime is a chaotic time of day. The plan in my head, and that I convey to my family, is never what happens. I'm not sure why I keep thinking that will change.
Now that school is starting again in a week, parts of that chaos will change by necessity. School keeps us on a regular schedule. The kids even are excited to be going back.
So to get back to my sister's question about bedtime routines: from what I've seen of her cute little one, his personality is so far different from what my children have been like, that I don't have anything to say except she's doing a fabulous job.
Kids don't come with instruction manuals for each personality or stage. I haven't had enough sleep for 11+ years, but raising children is worth the hard parts we go through over the years.
I love to see them develop into their own person. They have unique strengths and weaknesses. I'm seeing how each of them are like and unlike Kris and me. That's half-way scary.
I'd love to pull the good parts, scrap the bad, and have them avoid most of the trouble that people face from bad choices. Hopefully, we can help them see the difference between right and wrong and help them to choose what is right.
For now, the house is finally quiet, I'm getting the bleary-eyed sleep nod starting, and it's time to call it a day.
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