by Cassidy Nunn | photo by Nunn Other Photography –
“Jingle Bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way … .” As I write this it’s now April, a full three months after Christmas. I’m perched on the rocking chair in my daughter’s room. She sits on my lap in her jammies and we rock back and forth, belting out the classic holiday tune together. It’s all become a part of her bedtime routine and despite my best efforts to persuade her that perhaps a new song might do for our evening ritual, we still always end up back at Jingle Bells.
There’s the usual, normal parts of the routine: bath time and change into pajamas. At the moment, only the fleece pajamas with footies that are a mere two sizes too big for her will do. Why? Because they have hearts on them. “The hearts! The hearts!” she’ll say, giving them a fierce hug each night before we put them on. We brush her teeth, select a book to read together and then the real fun of the routine begins. First, she will line up all her favourite toys on her dresser so they can “watch” while she sleeps. We’ve had to come to this compromise because otherwise she will try to line them all up in her bed with her and this can potentially mean sharing her bed with 21 toy horses. Next, she will kiss them each good night. This can take anywhere from 30 seconds to five minutes, depending on the number of toys that have come into the bedroom that night. Then she must somersault into her sleep sack and this usually takes a minimum of two attempts before the “perfect” somersault has been achieved. Once in her sleep sack, the next part of the routine is to “crawl to mama, crawl to dada,” which she chirps out in her babiest of voices. She speed-crawls as fast as she can between the two of us, collapsing in a fit of giggles at the end. Then it’s lights out, time for the rocking chair and our Christmas song.
I remember hearing other parents talk about how kids thrive and often will crave or seek out routines in their daily life, but I had no idea how much a stickler my own child could be about her specific routines and rituals. There is to be no straying from the course! While sometimes it has worried me that she’s so exact in her routines, so particular, studies have shown there is benefit to children having a regular dinner or bedtime routine, for example. Children can then have a familiar, expected interaction with their family and regular routines can provide balance, structure and predictability in a world that can so often be filled with the unpredictable.
Soon this routine will face a big disruption with the arrival of our second baby. Bedtime will have to be adjusted to incorporate the newest addition to our family. I was recently reading about implicit memories and how they can start to form even before babies are born. In the third trimester, the baby’s auditory system is being wired and can recognize its mother’s voice. This baby has been listening to months of Jingle Bells being sung every single night and I can’t wait to see the reaction when baby gets to be a part of this evening ritual. Perhaps my daughter will be ready for a change by then, as we disrupt her bedtime routine, or perhaps she’ll continue carolling her holiday tune until the next Christmas season rolls around. By then her sibling may be attempting her own harmonization attempts!
