Talmage's Bedtime a la Mary Cassatt

Well, after my last posting, I decided to do something a little bit lighter.

Before going to bed Talmage and I read three books. Talmage invariably wants more books. Once we've read two, I'll say definitively "Last book." To which Talmage will respond, "Eight more?" "Nope, last book. Say last book." He'll concede a bit reluctantly, "Last book." After books are done, Talmage will ask for a song. This is always the "ABCs one." After we might move into a bit of the Beatles classic "Obladi, Oblada, Life Goes On." He then goes into his crib. He needs his cars. All of them. All 77 of them. He then needs a band-aid. Why a band-aid? I'm not really sure, but I do know that it is essential. Then kisses, good night, then I walk out as he screams "OUT!"

I remember after babysitting our neighbor's kids in Provo (before we had kids, of course), Tyler made me promise our future kids would just be sent straight to bed--no frills. Well, so much for that.

Today Talmage and I were reading a book called A Child's Book of Lullabies which is, exactly that, a collection of lullabies. Classics like "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star," "Rock-a-bye Baby," "Lullaby and Good Night," and, of course, "Cum By Yah." The lullabies are accompanied by Mary Cassatt images of mothers and children. Today while we were singing "Hush, Little Baby," Talmage studied the above picture. He noticed that there was a little boy sitting on his mama's lap that was same-sames as him sitting on his mama's lap. The boy had his head on mama's shoulder same-sames as him with his head on mama's shoulder. Only his hand was not same-sames. So Talmage very gently took his right hand and slipped it up underneath my chin. Same-sames! And pretty-heartwarming. "Thanks, Mama," he said. Thank you, Talmage.