Bye Bye, Rock-a-bye

A new era has begun in our house. For what seems like forever, I have been rocking kids to sleep. There has always been some form of crutch when it comes to getting my kiddos to sleep. At first, we had the pacifier with Alex and that worked for the most part. Then we moved on to just waiting until he fell asleep in our bed when we went to bed too. (That one was really annoying) Then miss Abby came along. We moved on to utilizing our second-hand rocking chair/recliner to its fullest ability. That chair has been rocked more than most chairs are meant to be rocked. Over the last month, it started to fail as a successful rocking chair. The poor thing doesn't really rock very well these days. However, this is not the reason for my recent change of pattern. You see, rocking two children works...in theory. Don't get me wrong. It is possible. But when one of those kids is nearly three and the other one is embarking on her ornery times, it makes it...well...difficult.

Abby spends the majority of her time in the chair making silly noises while Alex laughs. When they aren't laughing and being utterly silly, they are slapping each other or wiggling around so much that I can't even get a good rocking pattern started. Soooo...last week I said enough is enough! I got up, took them into their beds and said, "Night, night!" They fought it for about half an hour. I sat on Alex's bed and told him that he is a big boy now and that he needs to sleep in his bed like one. I gave them each a couple of books to entertain themselves, kissed them good night, and went to go read on the couch. Now, I am proud to say that they both go to bed like a charm every night and sleep on their own. It has changed my evenings drastically. I have more time to enjoy the quiet mama-me-time I so desperately need at day's end. Alex wakes up nearly every morning since talking about how he slept in his bed like a big boy and Abby has actually started sleeping through the night (mostly). Abby, of course, has never really had a problem going down for her nap by herself, so I knew that she would adjust fairly well. It's strange and new to me to have two happily sleeping children. But I can honestly say that I love it! This must be how all those normal parents feel, eh? Now, if only I could get them to eat their vegetables...