Going to bed

We need to find a new routine for going to bed. It seems as though we get through the initial part of the routine okay. On the non-bath nights (no, we don't bathe them every night unless it's summer and the combo of sunscreen and dirt are evident everywhere...judge away) we do the face and hand washing and the teeth brushing without much incident. Bladders are emptied, underpants changed and magnets are on the Melissa and Doug Responsibility Board in hopes of another prize for getting all magnets for the day. Then, the books are read, hugs and kisses abound and everyone is tucked in. Now if it ended there, I would do cartwheels when I got downstairs. But no, this isn't the end, it is merely the beginning. Despite all that I do to try and get the stray doll, toy or must have item upstairs with us on that trip up, apparently I always forget an essential item. I am sure it is equally irritating on their part that I can't quite figure out beforehand what is an essential item to bring up with us each night.

We then go back and forth with additional potty trips, drinks of water, change of pjs into warmer or cooler ones and additional requests to snuggle. I realize these are all boundary pushers designed to test us as parents and to be honest....it's working. After having a day of constant motion with the two of them I can't figure out how they still have any energy left because I certainly don't have any.

Nicole in particular is going through a spell right now where even one little bump in the road in her mind causes an all out crumple onto the floor. Take last night for instance....after all of the above was completed she decided that she needed a Band Aid for a miniscule scab on her toe. Okay, I get it I was the Queen of Band Aids when I was her age and now they make them with any imaginable cartoon on there so they are even more appealing than the brown plastic ones of my youth. So she is able to go downstairs and get the bandaid herself while I stay upstairs and try to whisk one last load of laundry into the dryer for the day. My little love comes upstairs, puts the bandage on her toe and proceeds to tell me that she has to go back downstairs to throw away the wrapper when there is a trash right there in the laundry room that I tell her she can put it in. Well no. That was not what she wanted so tears, big, fat tears are streaming down her face and she is getting that hiccuping crying because she is so upset that I made her throw away the wrapper upstairs and not downstairs like she wanted to. I realize it would have been easier to let her go down and throw it away in the kitchen but it was already 8:40, well past bed time and I wasn't giving in and she was obviously exhausted and needed to go right into bed. I put her in, cuddled for a few and she finally did stop with the crying and went to sleep but by the time I got downstairs to get ready for today it was well after 9PM.

So how do you do it? Are your night times filled with this much hectic-ness? Is there a way to transition from the fullness of the days activities into the calmness needed to go to bed without tears? We have had a few tearless nights and Aimee by far is easier to get to bed at night because I think she realizes that "hey, I am tired and those ballet slipper sheets look pretty good right now..." but I think that the terrible 3's are in our midst right now.