“Mama read.”

Tad has opinions. And he’s letting us know them now.

For as long as Ane’s been able to express her opinions, she has chosen which parent will be reading to her at bedtime. (Naptime, save the times when the Webmaster is unemployed, is always me reading to both kids.) Tad got left with whichever parent was not chosen by Ane that evening.

That has all changed, now that Tad has discovered the power of words. And I have become his designated reader in the evening, and we’ve developed our own bedtime ritual.

“Mama read. Mama read. Mama read.” On and on it goes, until I’m finally in his room, sitting in the glider with him in my lap. Tad has his bunny in one hand and insists on having his “blunkly” (his blue fleece blanket with Tigger printed all over it) tucked around both of us.

He will choose his story. Right now, since our visit to the Children’s Museum on Monday, he’s been on a Curious George kick. He’s brought a whole stack of paperbacks out and they are on his dresser, next to the glider, ready to pick from.

“George an’ beesball. George go school. George do-nats. George an’ cuppycakes. George inna snow. George an’ puppies.”

And so on, and so on, and so on. We have a lot of Curious George books.

I’ll usually let him choose two, with the caveat that the second is the “last story.” “Las’ story!” Tad announces when we start book number two. But as soon as the second book is done, he looks up at me with his big hazel eyes and says, “Bible story?”

Then we pull down his Bible, and read one story out of it – each story is a few pages long, and every page is illustrated. Once the Bible story is over, Tad – who has been holding the bookmark in his hands during the story – puts it back into the Bible, and I put the Bible back on his shelf as he shimmies off my lap, holding his bunny and dragging his blunkly, and climbs into his bed.

We negotiate quickly what music he would like to listen to – he has a limited selection nowadays, but he usually wants Veggie Tales. LarryBoy is only for naptime, but the lullaby CDs are fine. I snap off the reading light on the dresser, make sure the nightlight is turned on, get the right CD into the player, and then open the door so I can see Tad well enough to tuck him in. Sometimes he wants other stuffed animals with him in bed. Last night, it was his Mickey Mouse that he got in Disneyland and his soft stuffed Lightning McQueen. But he always has his bunny. He snuggles under his blunkly, and then I toss his old crib comforter on top of him. We pray together. I give him more kisses than I can count. He giggles and we rub noses.

Finally, I get up, tell him I love him (he replies “I know,” – thank you, Han Solo), turn on his music and say, “Good night, Tad.”

“A-bye, Mama.”

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 9th, 2009 at 1:47 am and is filed under Children, Mommyhood, Speech Therapy Saga.
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