Routine

Everyone tells you when you have kids it makes life so much easier if you get them on a routine. I completely believe this to be true especially since Lily can tell us what to do most days. At night if Chet is working we get dinner ready so that he can take some with him and we sit and eat as he is getting his last minute stuff together. (Having the kids occupied with food insures that the stuff that goes in his bag and lunch stay there.) Before Daddy leaves he gives everyone kisses. Owen better see daddy kiss everyone or he follows dad around telling him he needs to go back and kiss whoever he missed.

When dinner is done we go downstairs and play for a half hour to forty-five minutes before we start getting ready for bed. Owen even though he can't tell time between 6:55 and 7:05 will tell me its time for bath. When someone says bath Lily heads for the stairs. We go upstairs and Lily will crawl to the bathroom and stand by the tub and do a little dance until she can get in. When you get her out of the tub she'll crawl to the living room and sit there until she is in her PJ's. When she is dressed and her hair is combed she'll go to Owen's room where we read and say prayers. Once his door is open she goes to her room crawls around her crib to find her pacifier and is ready for bed without a complaint (unless hippo isn't there to snuggle with then she puts up a fuss until we find hippo).

Then there is Owen who realizes that he can draw out going to bed with odd questions and trips to the bathroom. Here are some of the amazing things he comes up with to keep me in his room. . .

1. Can I have a cookie?

2. Can you turn off Debbie's (our neighbor has an outside light near Owen's window that is only on maybe once every 2 weeks) light?

3. Can we give Lily more kisses?

4. Can I have new underwear (he believes they need to be changed every 5 minutes)?

5. Can I eat dinner? (If you know Owen it's impossible to get him to eat dinner the first time let alone a second.)

Then after all the questions are over we still have one more trip to the bathroom even though he went before he got in the tub, after he got out of the tub, while I was getting Lily dressed, and after we put Lily to bed. AMAZING!!!