From the time that they were wee babes, both of the lils have gone to bed really early. It has always been nice, as it allows Willy and me to enjoy some time together in the evenings, but also an opportunity to get things done; work, laundry, dishes, or even veg on the couch playing Ratchet and Clank for three hours.  Even now they are pretty tired from their days and start moving to bed at 7:00. The tiredness, Woo’s pre-dawn waking, and Goose’s general love of sleep have meant that we have little inclination to try and change things.

The long days of late have been lovely, but have threatened to change the bedtime routine in our house.  The lils are tired at bedtime, but the daylight fools them into thinking that they *should* stay up, and they often get the sillies in the early evening.  If this goes too far they get really wound up and start to feed off each other.  Separating them becomes tricky, and then we have to try and wind them back down.  This usually involves an extra story or two, and an extra-long cuddle before leaving them to go to sleep.

Last night was one of those nights.  The lils were having fun together and it got silly.  We got them apart after several false starts and Willy settled in with Woo, Goose with me. I thought that I was doing pretty well with her and was about to leave our cuddle, when she asked me to tell her what parts of her body I loved.  I started to name parts; her eyes, her lips, her knees, her elbows.  Each time that I named a part, she matched and told me about part of my body that she loved.

It was fairly calm and quiet until she said, “I love your boobs.”  I could tell by the mischievous tone in her voice that she was testing, to see how I would react.  Not wanting to rile her up again, I refused to bite and just replied that I loved her toes.  Undeterred, she tried to bait me again, this time with, “I love your stinky breath.” Again I stayed flat and professed my love for her toes.

At this point I thought that she would sense that I wasn’t biting and give up.  She did get that I wasn’t biting, and came back with “I love your tail.”  My TAIL.  At this pointed we both dissolved into giggles and I knew that I had lost.  The silliness continued, and bedtime took a wee bit longer.