Moon Moon Moon

For all the unpredictability in our house, we have a very predictable bedtime routine.  The boys get a fresh diaper or pull-up, they brush their teeth, we read a story, we sing a song, I say “Happy, happy sleep and sweet, sweet dreams” and then it’s over.  G’nite.

When Mike sings, he usually does old rock songs, and the boys love it.  When I sing, I sing one song over and over – “Moon Moon Moon” by Lorrie Berkner.  After all the Mommy & Me and Music Together classes I’ve endured, this is the only song I have in my repertoire for bed.  Thankfully, the boys love it, too.

A few weeks ago, Mike was on bedtime duty because I was cooking dinner and had lost my patience with the kids big time.  I don’t even remember what sent me over the edge.  It was just one of those days.  Anyway, Mike came in the kitchen and said the boys wanted to hear the moon song, so I sang while cooking and Mike recorded it on his iPhone.  We thought it would be fun for them, and it was.  According to Mike, it put them in some kind of trance.  They were in awe that my voice was coming from the phone, and Riley kept pointing at it and saying, “Mommy? Mommy?” 

We played the recording the next night while I was in the room, and it was amazing to see them respond so genuinely to my voice.  It was also unbearable.  It made me think that if something ever happened to me, they would have this one short recording of me singing “Moon Moon Moon” and it made me want to cry.  But I digress.

My bedtime routine is as follows: brush teeth, floss (if I remember), watch “Anderson Cooper 360” until I start dozing and tell Mike to roll over when he snores.   The tell Mike to roll over part pretty much continues on and off all night.  So do tossing and turning because my bed is so old and uncomfortable that my neck, hips and back hurt the minute I get in the bed.  Somewhere around 4am, Harry, who at nearly six years old still needs to pee in the middle of the night, will wake one of us to let him out.  By the time I fall back asleep from that interruption, it’s usually time for Riley to wake up screaming around 5am.

But all of this – the good and bad – is going to change tonight.  We finally bought a new bed for our room (a King!) and it’s being delivered this afternoon.  Our old bed is going into Riley’s old room, which we’re using as a guest room/office/junk yard.  And the twin bed that has been collecting dust in Riley’s old room is going into Riley and Dylan’s room to…drum roll…replace Riley’s crib.  Yes, Riley will sleep in a big boy bed for the first time tonight.  It’s either the best or worst idea we’ve ever had, but I’m so ready to be done with the crib (and we have too many beds and too little space to store them!).  

Bedtime will be nuts tonight, I’m sure.  If we can get Riley to stay in his new bed, I know I’ll sleep like a baby in mine…until Harry wakes me up to pee, Mike wakes me up with his snoring and Riley inevitably wanders into our room in the middle of the night to say hello because he can.  At least we’ll still have “Moon Moon Moon.”