A Thousand Nights of Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star

Im not sure what your bedtime routine is for your children, but for ours, since we're a pretty musical family, our kids have a Mom and Dad playlist. For my daughter, its the girly tune of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" and for my son, it's "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star". It occurred to me, the other night, as I was tucking my son in, and singing (for what felt like the thousandth time) Twinkle Twinkle, this has been every night of his life, give or take a few nights at the grandparents (and Im pretty sure he gets them to sing it too)...and I was reminded how fleeting the moment of childhood is.

A thousand nights seems like forever, especially when you are singing the same song over and over again (and sometimes different versions, for added giggles)... But for how many more nights? How many more nights will my sweet, dimpled, brown eyed boy snuggle down in his bed, with his favorite bedtime "guys" around him and ask for Mommy to sing his special song? How many more nights will I be able to wrap my sweet girl up, hold her close and sing her special rainbow song to her? As parents, sometimes we are exhausted by the routine, simply because we are exhausted. We put in long hours and stressful days, and our sweet littles fail to realize that, by the time we finish feeding, bathing, reading, singing, tickling, praying and tucking, we are ready to fall in bed ourselves. For myself, sometimes I battle the desire to forget a step...to skip the story or the song, simply because Im tired, or its late. And on those nights, I hear my little guy asking, "What about song, Mommy?" "What about story?" and I have to wonder, how much longer will he want to ask me that? How much longer will this be special to him? and so I push through, I make the memories, I read the story (with the voices), because I know that in his heart, this is what makes his safe place. This is what makes his house a home. My husband and I always tell our son (and someday our daughter) that he can talk to us about anything. Specifically, my husband has always told my son that they can have special "Man to Man" chats (without Mommy!) whenever he needs. And so, on those rare occasions, when my son requests a Man to Man chat, I pout, but I dutifully stroll out of the room, hearing my little boy giggle with his dad about farts or legos or xbox, or some other "manly" thing, with the knowledge and the hope that someday, because of all those special chats now, when my son really needs a Man to Man chat, his dad will be the first person he turns to. As parents, we are asked to go above and beyond, work long hours, put in effort tirelessly, for demanding, little, peanut butter and jelly covered, runs around with no pants, wrestles and rides the cat, type of "bosses", but this job, even as the most demanding one in the world, is worth every moment. Our family is experiencing a season of change this summer. A preschooler about to be a big kindergardener and a baby about to be a toddler, with each precarious step she attempts to take. Im not sure how many of these special moments we have left. So parents, I encourage you, put on the costumes, build the legos, read the stories (with the voices!), participate in the bedtime prayers, join in the silly dance...live every moment of childhood with your littles, because you never know when they'll stop asking for Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, but you'll always know that is the memory of family, home and love they will keep in their heart. As for me? I'll be singing Twinkle Twinkle every night, maybe for a thousand nights more, as long as he'll let me.