Toora Loora

As Mya gets better and better at sleeping through the night, our night ritual is shortening and we often skip some, or all, of the regular steps. I am a huge believer that bedtime must be consistent and repetitive for the wind-down to happen. Every step we take announces "bedtime soon" and we almost never have any conflict about going to bed.

Tonight, she was good with just the lullaby part. We didn't need to talk through the day and discuss her favorite moment. Come to think of it, we didn't even hug and kiss. Lately, with her love of books, we often have to look at one or two short books too. (I only allow short ones lest we get a chapter book that allows for the subtle avoidance of 7:30 p.m. lights out.)

"Toora Loora Loora" is the only lullaby we've been singing for a long time. Please note, Mya prefers it to be "doora" (as in the explorer) rather than "toora". Also, she wants a few back rubs along with her song and then she rolls over for a few rubs in her left arm pit (don't ask me why) before she rolls over to her other side and puts her hand over her head for the right arm pit rub. Once the first verse of Toora Loora is through, I have to sing one more verse but this time with scratches. The scratches have to reach the pits too - weird. Tonight it was especially sweet when she chimed in the final line and sang along with me.

I headed for the door with the exact same words I say to her every night - "Good night, I love you". I know that some day all of this will pass and I won't be part of her night time rituals so I definitely wanted to capture them here before they phase out completely. Sweet dreams and I'll see you when the sun comes up.