memories and rituals

Funny! The UPS man, after delivering a package to our neighbor, stopped to ask Kyra and Zoe if they had snow cones to sell... (He bought one from them last week.) They told him that they were just beginning to set it up. Wonder if he'll come back by?  (Sadly, but expectedly, he didn't.)

Most nights, Kyra wears t-shirts and pajama pants to bed. Tonight she came in, ready for bed, wearing pajama pants and her old triathlon shirt (in this picture, she's wearing it (on the right) at the end of the race in 2007). The shirt looked tiny on her tonight! She hasn't worn it in ages... It barely covers her waist now! We started talking about when that race was and she thought it was 2007, based on a copyright date span on a shirt sponsor. I was amazed at how tiny it looks! How did time fly so quickly? We reminisced about going to Sophia's lake house after the event. (Sophia is on the left in the photo.) Has it really been 3 years? So after she fell asleep, I had to go through old photos... My little triathlete...

But before she fell asleep, we did the normal ritual... prayers... then I say "night night sleep tight don't let the bed bugs bite", and she says "Is Mr. Grinch or the monsters coming?", to which my response is always "No". Then she says "good night" and I say "good night" and she says "sleep well" and I say "ok" and she says "I love you" and I say "I love you too!". Well tonight I said something after that and we had to start over with "good night", etc. Then I said something else after the I Love You's and we had to start again. The third time around I had another comment after the I love you's and she point-blank told me that going to sleep has to end in a pattern. We repeated the process and I kept my mouth shut after saying "I love you too!"

As she was falling asleep I thought about our bedtime ritual.  When she was two or three years old, I made the mistake of taking her to see the movie "How the Grinch Stole Christmas". We had to leave in the middle of it because she was terrified. From that night forward, EVERY NIGHT at bedtime she asks if Mr. Grinch or the monsters are coming. If she really thought about it now, she would know the answer. Yet every night we go through the same routine with me responding "no" to that question. Guess Mr. Grinch will be in our lives forever...