Crazy routines

Well, we just got the kids in bed and I was thinking about the crazy things we do to appease our children. Our newest routine involves each family member singing a solo while standing on our coffee table. The cutest is when Ella sings, "Ba ba bye," (Lullaby) while swaying back and forth and lovingly holding a baby doll. Emily will usually sing the ABC song or the Barney song. But occasionally she'll make up her own nonsense song. Steve usually does an opera rendition. And I rack my brains to sing a new song everynight. But by 8:30, my brain is usually in shut-down mode. So tonight I sang, "Happy Birthday" - a tribute to Lynn and Karissa whose birthdays we celebrated at our house tonight with all the family.

The other bedtime routines are fairly normal, I guess. Luckily we've reduced the number of things we have to do before bed. However, if we forget ONE thing, Emily will cry during the night once she realizes it. So as of now, our usual bedtime routine consists of pjs, books, songs, teeth, prayers and hugs and kisses. Much better than the elaborate routines of the past.

Another crazy routine is at mealtimes. After we say prayer, everyone has to blow a kiss to every other family member. Then after somebody cleans their plate off, everyone else has to scream while that person holds their ears. (Yes, we work hard to get our children to eat.) During the worst mealtimes, I've been known to label every bite as a princess and explain why Emily has to let them into her mouth - ex. Cinderella's step-sisters are after her to rip her dress, or Sleeping Beauty needs a soft place to sleep, or Jasmine needs to take a magic carpet ride - you get the picture. I envy families whose children actually enjoy eating.

We do have a fun mealtime routine, though. It started at FHE at our family council, and has now infiltrated our mealtimes. We didn't know how to have family council with such little kids, so I would ask them, "What makes you happy? What makes you sad?" Now it's turned into the happy/sad/glad game. Emily will go around the table asking each person what makes them happy, sad and glad. It's a great way to recap our day. And it's a really great way for Emily to stall eating her dinner!

One of Ella's crazy routines is the game I have to play with her when I carry her downstairs. I always have to pretend like I'm falling down the stairs and am going to drop her. She laughs histerically until I finally do drop her on the couch downstairs.

My crazy routine with Emily is a word game we play. If one of us tells the other that we love them, the other person has to say, "No, I love you" and we argue back and forth about who loves the other until Emily finally says, "I know...how about we both love each other?" And I say, "Ok, great idea."

And our latest FHE routine involves everyone taking turns playing huckle buckle beanstalk or hide and go seek. Ella clings to daddy and they play together. They could play that game forever!!

I'm sure there's more crazy routines we have in our family, but I'll save those for a future blog. And I'll have to add pictures later, because Steve's gotten on the blog bandwagon too and is writing his blog on the main computer!