My Favorite Two Toddler Time

My very favorite "two toddler" time has to be bedtime.

Of course, bedtime is beautiful because it means that I have survived another day and that there will soon be 2,187,298 fewer questions per minute shouted at me (not to mention the hitting, yelling of the word "mine" for things that no one really cares about, clinging at just the moment I am trying to get something done, and the pooping, oh the pooping).

An end to the day's chaos is not really why it's my favorite time, though.

Well, that's not the ONLY reason.

Bedtime is hard on toddlers.  They don't necessarily want the day to end.  They don't want to be separated from mom or miss the fun that may happen when their door is shut for the night.  Mine probably even have real fears about who will be there in the morning and what may happen in the night.

Despite all that, my toddlers are at their very cutest at bedtime.  They LOVE the routine of it all.  They LOVE that they know just what to expect each and every night.  They recite the order of events over and over again for me to make sure that tonight will be like all the others.

Change my diaper?

Yes, I'm going to change your diapers.  Then I'll brush your teeth.

Brush teeth?

Yes, after I change your diaper, I'll brush your teeth.  Then we'll read a book.

Read a book?

Yes.  I'm going to change your diaper, then brush your teeth, and then we'll read a book.

Change my diaper?

And on it goes over and over again until we have done it all.

It is the one time a day that they are more than happy to have their diapers changed.  They are so, so excited to brush their teeth.  They then rush to pick a book to read.  They don't complain when they are put into bed because they know that I am about to sing them "Twinkle, Twinkle," which they find so exciting and amusing at bedtime.  It's like they think they are getting away with something, getting me to stay in their room a few extra minutes to sing them a song.  They also know I am likely to cave and sing them their ABCs, too, when they start singing it for me.

I always worry that they won't get right to sleep because they are so wound up from the fun of the bedtime routine.  Their giddiness during the singing doesn't seem to keep them awake, luckily.  I've been raising kids for 13+ years now, and this routine never seemed to excite anyone before this.  I think there is just something about having TWO toddlers, knowing that they are in it all together, that there will be someone there to share the dark room, that one will get to wake the other up when the first rays of sun appear in the sky.

So often the combination of the two causes friction between them and weariness on my part.

But at bedtime...

at my "two toddler" bedtime...

Two toddlers is the perfect number!

(Please don't remind me that one of my infants will become a toddler next month!  I'm not sure about a "three toddler" bedtime!)