Toddler Talk Thursday - Bedtime Routines

Toddler Talk Thursday is hosted by Family and Life in Las Vegas, Crazy About My Baybah and The Life of a Sippy Cup Mom.  It was created as a place for moms and dads to talk all things toddler.  

I absolutely love this weekly discussion as I learn so much!

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This weeks topic:

What is your toddler’s bedtime routine?

And the featured blogger is

3 Princess Academy 

Oh wait that's me!  Haha, good thing I decided to get on the computer today, I almost completely forgot!  Having 3 toddlers makes for an interesting bedtime routine around here.  That's actually the reason I chose this topic, I really need some good ideas!  

We've recently started getting into a better routine, but it's still not always consistent.  

If I could our routine would look like this

7:30pm - get jammies and brush teeth.

7:50pm - read scriptures

8:00pm - all tucked in

Now just this last week we've gotten into a better routine.  We start anytime between 7:30pm and 8:00pm.  I send Princess V and Princess C into their rooms to get jammies on, while I get Princess R into her jammies.  Sometimes Princess C needs a little extra help as well, so I always have to check on her once Princess R is ready.  

Now I am going to admit something here that I'm not proud of.  Quite often we forget to brush teeth before bed.  So when my kids get cavities I can't blame it on anyone but me.  Thankfully though, when we do remember Princess C loves it and doesn't complain at all.  Princess V on the other hand has a hard time with brushing her teeth.  She doesn't like it, and starts gagging the moment her toothbrush touches her teeth.  She is better than she used to be about it.  I used to have sit on top of her to brush her teeth, and that was no fun at all!!

Ok, so once our jammies are on, and hopefully our teeth are brushed, we gather as a family in the "Hall" (it's what we call the family room) for scripture reading and prayer.  This is definitely my favorite time of the night.  We are instilling a firm foundation of faith in our children that I feel as parents is our responsibility.  It took being very consistent with this to get the Princess' to sit still, but now they are almost angels during this part of our night.

After prayer we give hugs all around and send Princess V and Princess C off to bed.  

My other favorite part of the night is right now.  King Dad goes into each Princess and reads them bedtime stories.  Depending on Princess R's mood I try to read to either Princess C or Princess V, but sometimes all I can give them is a goodnight kiss and tell them to wait for Daddy.  I love love love that King Daddy gets involved with their bedtime.  Right now King Daddy is reading Alice in Wonderland to Princess V and he just started Pocahontas with Princess C.  

While Princess V and Princess C are being read to, I am back in the Hall helping Princess R.  We are still breastfeeding, so I latch her on, and usually start an episode of Doctor Who on Netflix.  It is really nice to have that time to just cuddle with Princess R while she eats and falls asleep.  She still needs to be fed to fall asleep and I wish I could change that.  I'd really love to be able to read her a story and then just lay her in her crib.  She protests though.  She'll actually cry and scream if I put her in bed while she's still awake.  Some nights I try it, but most nights my heart won't let me take it.  

Pretending to sleep in their toy drawers. I walked into this one day, so great!

Poor Princess C, just couldn't stay awake any longer. 

Suggestion for next weeks topic - What chores do you give your toddler?

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