Bedtime shenanigans

Mikey and William used to do bath and bedtime just the two of them. It was their nightly bonding time, and I admit that I adored sitting on my tush watching TV and eating dessert all by myself. Since little brother's arrival, my lazy time in the evening has pretty much disappeared. Ryan and I started going upstairs for bathtime when he was in need of a healthy dose of steam due to congestion. It seems like he was congested for a better part of two months, so it became routine for all four of us to squeeze in the bathroom upstairs and then go to William's room to finish off his bedtime routine.

It is actually a very sweet time of day around here, which is good because William does his best to draw it out...not to mention that we've started having him sit on the potty every night before bath. He gets a small treat if he does anything in there, so of course he doesn't want to get up until nature works her magic.

Anyway, William gets two books of his choice, and then there are lots of hugs and kisses all around. Lately, Ryan seems to be indicating that he's in favor of an earlier bedtime, so he's gotten fussy toward the end of William's routine. It has been the neatest thing to watch Ryan settle down when we lay him on the pillow next to his big brother. Most of the time he is calmed by being there. And then William starts to, ahem, ever so gently hug his brother, and Ryan is ready to be rescued.

Depending on Ryan's schedule for the day (which he sets and changes constantly), we have been missing out on helping with William's routine on occasion. I'm sure that will be the case more and more as Ryan's bedtime becomes consistently earlier. So I'm glad that I took some pictures of the nightly fun while I could. Such sweet memories.


Reading the always-popular "Good Night Connecticut"


Such a jokester


Listening to the story and marveling at the ceiling fan


Love them!


Just a little squeeze tonight since the camera is out to capture the evidence.


This picture was taken after William basically put all his weight on defenseless Ryan, and we told big brother he needed to get up and be a bit more gentle.