The Nighttime Routine

We are pretty settled in a nighttime routine these days. Here is how it goes:

I leave work at 5 to pick up Norah from daycare. Thanks to a major construction project we sit in heavy traffic and don't get home until 5:45.

The first thing I do is offer Norah dinner. I get one of two responses: 1) Norah walks to her chair and wants to be put in it, or 2) I try to put Norah in her chair and she fusses and arches her back. Response 1 = Norah eating dinner. Response 2 = Norah skips dinner.

After dinner (if we have it) we get in the bath. Norah loves to play with the water as it comes out of the faucet. Once that is over she is completely content with two things: a duck and a washcloth.

Seth often gets home while Norah is in her bath. As soon as I hear the garage door I start telling Norah that daddy is home. By the time Seth makes it to the bathroom she is crazy with anticipation and starts cheesing and splashing around.

She loves her bath so much that she typically is not interested in getting out. When we ask her if she is all done she scoots to end and lifts the drain. However, she is definitely not ready to be done. And you would think that a bath wouldn't be much fun without water, but Norah doesn't seem to mind. No matter how much warning we give she always starts crying as soon as we take her out. We attempt to brush her teeth through much wiggling and crying.

As soon as we put Norah on her changing table she starts crying again and keeps it up through diapering, lotion application and dressing. Seth tells a wiggling, fussing Norah goodnight and hands her off to me for nursing, which is when the crying finally ends.

By 6:15 or 6:30 at the latest the light is off, music is on, and Norah is in her crib.

On a side yet related note, we have been working a lot on words and animal sounds lately and tonight I got rewarded for all of my efforts. I put Norah down right outside of the bathroom and asked if she was ready for her bath. She immediately starting walking toward the tub holding out her hand saying, "Du, du." That means duck! She always has a duck in her bath and we keep it on the side of the tub. She walked right to it and picked it up. I thought I heard it a few times in the past week, but wasn't positive until tonight.

It's the small things in life, right?