Utah Bedtime tales

Hello,

We thought we were getting the routine. Get the girls in their pajamas, read books, say prayers, and put them in bed. Everything seemed to be ok with Nora until we got to her crib. “Funky bear,” she said.

“I’ve been instructed about this,” I thought as I straightened the bear’s shirt.

Then it was time to do something about the blanket. “Good, good,” I congratulated myself.

Now some word I could not understand was coming out of Nora’s mouth. At 1.5 years old Nora is happy to repeat more vehemently anything that does not achieve the proper response, consequently I listened to the word about 15 times before I realized it was water. She wanted some water. Done, and now back into bed, adjust bear’s shirt, and pull the blanket around her.

Olivia also sleeps with a bear or a doll or both. Earlier I had noticed that neither was in her bed or in her room. So I had asked her about getting them before we read books. At her reply of, “I do not need them tonight,” I warned, “If that is so we will not get them later.”

You guessed it. As soon as she was in bed she wanted her doll. I said, “No, earlier you said you did not want them. Or you can have the doll that is here in the room.”

She wailed, “I don’t want to sleep with that doll.”

I left the room. Quite some time later she was still crying. I told Leroy about the doll incident to find that he had also talked to her about getting the doll or bear ahead of time. She also told him that she did not need them.

Meanwhile she is yelling, “Granny! Granny!”

I went back into her room and told her, “Both Grandpa and I had offered to go looking for your doll and you refused. It is now too late and you can not have them.”

At that she told me she would take the doll that was in her room. I gave it to her, shut the door firmly as requested, and left.

Silence? Will it last? Yes!

Paula