Letter to my Children: Bedtime Snapshot
/Dragon perched on his pillows, his legs pulled tight against him.
“Did you go to the bathroom?”
“Ummmm.” The slight shrug of his shoulders and his sheepish look spoke volumes.
“I will wait.”
Two minutes later he was back on the pillows, poised and ready to uncurl his legs. I lifted the flannel duvet, grabbed the handle of the soapstone bed warmer, and yanked it out. His legs darted into the space vacated by the stone. Quickly, he snuggled down into warm softness.
“I will be right back, I am going to put this into my bed.” To double team with the one already there, hooray!
I return, perch on his bed, and lean over to turn off the light.
“Story! Remember it…”
Can’t be about us
“can’t be about us and …”
Has to be long enough
“… has to be long enough.” Dragon continued.
“I know the rules. Okay, here goes.”
Hmmmm, story story story, story. Story!
“Once upon a time there was a unicorn who wanted to paint his nails pink - but unicorns don’t have opposable thumbs.”
So what does he do?
“So he convinced the nail polish company to put pink polish in little bowls that he could walk into directly and paint his nails that way.”
It is going to make a mess when he walks around with all of that nail polish rubbing off everywhere.
“The tricky thing was giving himself enough time to have his hooves dry. He would stand there patiently and wait for one hoof to dry, then place the next one raise that,” I raised my left hand up, “then raise the next one,” I dropped my left hand and raised my right, “all the way through all four legs.”
Now he is going to walk and leave a trail of nail polish dust everywhere he goes.
“Once all of his hooves were dry he went out in the world with his great pink feet. However, as he walked the bottom of his hooves began to wear down as he traversed the world. Thankfully, the nail polish was made out of snail food.”
That way it benefits the Earth.
Dragon jumped in, “But the snails started following him everywhere he went and the other unicorns started slipping on the slime trails that were happening all over.”
WOAH, that is SO AWESOME. I laughed. “Unfortunately, because of the slime trails all of the other unicorns told the nail polish company to stop selling the nail polish to the unicorn. The End… Your turn!”
Dragon’s slow drawl “Once upon a time there was an animal who couldn’t figure out the difference between specific and Pacific.”
I burst out laughing.
“What?!”
“Momma, try to say that five times fast. Specific Pacitic, Spatitic, Spatetic, Badidic”
“Dragon!”
Bean called over from her room. “What are you two laughing about!”
“Specific Pacifics!!”
Eventually, I left Dragon’s room and wandered to Bean’s room. Five different throw blankets lay on top of pillows and covers. Ensconced within the pastel plush colors Bean lay reading.
“Have you painted your funky toes?”
“Not yet.”
“Ok, I will do. Give me your toes.” I grabbed the toenail painting tool and schmeared it across the remaining misshapen nails. So much better than it was a few years ago.
“Can you put down the book for two seconds and talk to me?”
A belaboured sigh accompanied her grin, “I guess so.”
“Tell me about your day. How was your day?”
“Good.”
Fine Mom, school was fine, hehe.
“Did you do anything interesting?”
“No…”
Is she shutting me down? Take a breath… nope
“But in Science yesterday we did a lab, where we, ummm, put eggs in vinegar. And then in 24 hours - well it’s not exactly 24 hours - but by the time the shell comes off. We are going to inspect it!”
“Woah.”
“So, on Thursday, which is our next day for Science, we are going to be inspecting the egg’s membrane!”
“Oh woah. Does the vinegar eat through the egg shell?”
“Yeah.”
“Oh that is super cool. Are they raw or are they cooked?”
“Raw.”
“Woah, that is super cool. You are going to look through the membrane into a raw egg?”
“Apparently.”
“That is awesome. I never did that when I was in school.”
“I am going to be sharing an egg with my desk partner. Michael, his birthday is tomorrow.”
“Ohhh, ice cream?”
“Yup! And he will get candy tomorrow. Which I will get to look at longingly - when he is not there. So annoying. I love candy. But it is not mine.”
“By the way, if you took that it would be dishonorable and you would be out of integrity.” And cue, the distainful tween look. “Just to tie in your vocabulary.” I giggled.
Bean rolled her eyes. “Just a bit too much at 7:50 in the night.” She paused. “Actually, it is not too late.”
“Are you ready to go back to your book?”
“Yes please, could you send in Dadda?”
My beloveds, it is such a joy to be with you as you tuck yourselves into soft warm beds at night. To set you up for success exploring and investigating this beautiful world with the ballast of a good night’s sleep - we are so blessed to have this life of safety and sweet dreams.
Amen.
