Nighty Night

Ben has gotten to the age where bedtime has become one big drama fest. It is amazing the stall tactics children learn to delay bedtime....i need water, i have to pee, one more story...and on and on.
We begin the process after a bath, teeth brushing and putting on pj's by sitting on a rocking chair we have in his room and allowing him to choose 2 stories from his basket of books. It goes in cycles and out of about 50 books he will go a week or so with always choosing the same 2 stories before finally tiring of those and the following week going on a new kick of 2 different books. He usually wins me over with a third but I try to limit it to 2 as when he hops in bed we have to read the 2 stories that he sleeps with- Gossie and Gertie and Oh my Oh my Dinosaurs. These 2 have been in his bed and have been a nightly ritual for over 6 months now so it is increasingly hard to read them with any enthusiasm!
When those are finished its lights out and onto the newest ritual of back rubbing while I sing 3 songs- You are my Sunshine, Twinkle Twinkle and a song that has been in Ian's family for many years-one his grandmother Vera created that goes a little something like this...ne na ne ne na ne ne na.....
Ian's grandmother sang it to all of her kids, Ian's mom sang it to her 3 kids and now we sing it to ours. I can only hope they will one day sing it to their kids! Just singing it makes me drowsy and the last few nights Ben has been so tired that he has fallen asleep while I was singing it. It was so sweet to watch him drift off and feel his body do that one last jolt before he entered into dreamland. So precious...I hope he feel asleep feeling safe, secure and loved.