Bedtime Trends

1. Sleeping in nightshirts. We sleep in a place that is fifty years old, with equally ancient windows. This means that in the winter we put plastic on them, and in the summer we find ways to endure the fact that it's ten degrees warmer upstairs than down. We introduced the "nightshirt" concept on one particularly warm night, and it has been hard to shake them of the habit since.

Here they are in their "Dime a Dog" shirts that we got for free at a Columbus Clippers game. These are their favorite to sleep in, because they match and, of course, because they have hot dogs on them. On the off nights they have had to settle with plain old "ketchup" (red) shirts, "marshmallow" (white shirts). Either way, they love it.

2. Musical beds. It had become a part of the bedtime ritual to, when it was time for bed, see Tyler run and jump into Parker's big boy bed, pull the covers over himself and giggle. I think he loved this mostly because it made Parker mad, and then the inevitable wrestle match ensued. One night I was not up for the struggle, and suggested that Tyler stay in there, and Parker sleep in the crib. To my surprise (or maybe not), they agreed.

That was two weeks ago and these hooligans having been sleeping this way ever since.

Perhaps the funniest part about this is that Parker, at age five, has still not quite figured out how to climb out of the crib. So we leave our step stool next to the crib for him to get in and out.