OUR NIGHTLY ROUTINE

Here at the Harrell house we go through the same routine every night. It is a long routine and on a good night it takes an hour and a half. Bedtime snacks, tubby races, tubbies, jammies, teeth, storytime, water. You get the picture. Night after night, week after week, Richard and I enjoy this familiar routine with our little men.

I know that it may seem ridiculous to go through the lengthy process, and there are times when even I think it is getting a bit long, but it seems to be a time that our entire family loves. I catch each of us counting on it, even little Aron has started squeeling with delight when he hears the bath water running and Aden always goes to pick out a book right after he is dressed.

After a particularly hard day our nightly routine always serves as a calming balance, a reminder that things are going to be okay, that things are actually more than okay---that they are pretty wonderful.

Aron is usually the first to drift away. Sometimes he stays up later, and we revel in time alone with our baby, but most nights he enters his deep slumber first. He looks so old lately, but I love it that he is not.

I still rock Aden and when I have the energy I rock him until he is asleep in my arms, and there are some nights when I sit and just hold him sleeping heavily on my lap. He hardly fits in it anymore, but until his little face can't fit just perfectly into the curve of my neck I am going to rock my Aden. When I am an old woman I want that memory.

I still lie with Alex. He is too old, I know, but it is our time. That child's thoughts as he drifts off to sleep are priceless. I love feeling that little ball of energy begin to relax in my arms, then jerk several times before it gloriously stops moving and sinks heavily into the bed. I love looking at his innocent little face, and watching his little hands twitch. Before I leave him I always kiss him all over his face and whisper, "I love you," and without fail, no matter how tired, no matter what has transpired that day-I always, always, always, hear a faint, "me too mom." It still makes me catch my breath, because it is so pure.

That is why Richard and I go through our nightly routine no-matter-what. It is in those little moments. Our routine yields so many of those moments night after night, week after week, year after year. We are convinced that when it is all said and done those moments will have been some of the best of our entire lives.