Thursday, June 14, 2007

Bedtime Stories

Bedtime rituals are very important at our house. We've been doing some variation of the same bedtime routine since Sam was about 2 months old in the desperate hope that it would help him sleep.

Our routine goes something like this:
Annoucement of Bathtime
Bathtime
Book & Ba (known to all you crazy people out there as pacifiers or binkies)
Prayer
Songs
CD and Bedtime

Recently, Sam has begun choosing his bedtime book. Lately it's been the beloved Dinosaur Train, but it could just as easily be The Pigeon Loves Things That Go! or The Pigeon Has Feelings, Too! Some nights we even make it back to the old favorites Hush, Little Baby or Goodnight Moon.

Tonight, when the time came to choose a book, Sam requested "The Truck Book." I'm thinking, hmmm..., he must mean that new truck book we got at the library sale, but maybe it's something else. So, I say, "Can you show me the truck book?" Sam marches right over to the Ford Magazine on the floor and picks it up and brings it to me.

Now by Ford Magazine, I mean the multi-page Ford ad that comes to you in the mail if you ever managed to get on a Ford Dealership's mailing list. And of course, it is full of pictures of cars and trucks.

Dutifully, I dive in as I struggle to figure out how I'm going to "read" the truck book to Sam. Andrew waltzes in as I am in mid-story.

"Sometimes there are red trucks. Some trucks have maps. Some people take trucks to the mountains. Some people like to put boats on top of trucks."

Surpressing guffaws, Andrew and I finally make it to the end, when Andrew announces the text for the final page of the book: "I like trucks!"

Of course, then I still have to make it through the rest of the ritual. After prayer, Dad escapes to laugh his little heart out, while I try to sing our bedtime songs. Making matters worse, Sam has started singing along just this week albeit in some crazy child-falsetto that also gives me that absolute giggles. Plus, tonight he's decided to make a point of trying to make me laugh. So, he turns to face me and starts laughing himself and pointing out my facial features, while I'm trying to sing.

In the end, I am trying so hard not to laugh, I'm crying, and I finally have to stop singing (because I can't manage to get the words out anyway), turn on his CD and flee the room before I explode into peals of laughter as I run down the stairs.

And what does Sam do, he lies down in his crib and laughs himself to sleep.

4 comments:

alicia said...

I'm so glad you've introduced your child to the pigeon! I looove the pigeon. Might I recommend the complete works of Mo Willems as soon as Sam is old enough to appreciate non-cardboard-based books? I've never tried the Ford catalog in storytime, but there's a first time for everything.

Unknown said...

round os aplause for the impromtu text for the ford catalouge. bravo bravo. i just hope you have it written down somewhere for when he becomes obsessed with it and wants it read every night but points out that you arent reading the words the way you read them before. lol.

Liz said...

I am laughing so hard I'm crying. I read it to my mom and so is she. Too cute!!

Andrew said...

The best part is that this morning, he marched into his room, sat down, and began reading the "truck book" to himself. "Trucks go up!" *turn page* "Trucks go down!" *turn page* "Trucks have lights!" and so on.

And Alicia, we already love "Knuffle Bunny" at our house and have designs on getting him "Edwina" when he's old enough.