As they were getting ready, I took some shots of them.
This night, I got all the kids showered. First the boys and then the girls. Bernadette loves to brush her teeth! I think it's really the non-fluoride, fruit flavored toothpaste she really likes.
I think it's neat how kids get attached to certain things when they are younger. Things that give them comfort and security. For two of my kids, it's blankies!
Anne, at 9 years old, still sleeps with her pink blankie from Target. When she was a baby and we were on a road trip she would start to cry in her car seat! We endured it for a while, but with Joe's suggestion that we give her a blanket to perhaps cease the crying - I was willing to try, but didn't think it would do anything. Boy, was I wrong! She instantly stopped crying and drew her blankie to her mouth and started rooting to it. You know, that reflex babies have when they want to nurse? Well, she did that way past her baby years and into her toddler years. Anne's blankie has been that comfort for her till today. I think I got this blanket as a gift from my mother-in-law.
Tommy is the same way. I bought him a blankie, but he had several blankies to become attached to. You get a lot of gifts when you have a baby. I think I chose a big blue fluffy fleece blankie, but he seemed to get attached to this blankie. It wasn't as durable as Anne's blanket and it had all the pastel baby colors in it. I wondered why he liked this one, because I prefer fluffy fleece! To each his own! My husband doesn't really care for fleece, either. What's not like to like?
As you can see, Tommy's blankie hasn't really done too well in the years and is already falling apart. You can see pieces of it all over the place! I don't mind my kids being attached to their blankie, but I do tell them they need to keep them in their beds and not drag them all over the house. I can't stand dirty blankies. They are old enough now to not bring them on trips and leave them at home. For a while, Tommy would ask me to sew his blankie back together, but it's beyond repair now. I wonder how long his will last?
If I think back to my early years, I remember loving my pillow. I loved how it smelled. I remember saying that if my house were to catch on fire and I could only save one thing, it would be my pillow. I still am sort of possessive of my pillow nowadays, a bit of a pillow snob too. I don't like to share it and I am weary of other pillows. It's funny, because I remember my mother also being attached to hers. She was a grown up! She had a favorite pillow case, too. My husband? I think it was his stuffed animals. He had many of them he slept with - he still has them, but he has now passed them onto our kids who keep them in the spare bunk in the boys room.
My other kids don't have blankie fetishes. One liked to bring a special toy into bed with him every night. One likes to be tucked in regularly. It's all so fascinating, I think.
After the showers, brushing of teeth and getting dressed we say a decade of the rosary and go around and take turns to give thanksgiving and prayer intentions.
This little one was so pooped, she fell asleep on a down blanket I had folded on the floor to put away later (I have a lot of things to put away and say I will do it later). Who wouldn't fall asleep on something so fluffy? She fell asleep clutching her rosary and the meditation book she flips through. Too cute.
The kids are so used to this routine (it really works, routine) they know to just go to sleep afterwards. Perhaps, they read or talk for a while, but they all quietly go to sleep soon after.
I go downstairs and enjoy the quiet and unwind.
Bonus picture:
Joe has moved on from stuffed animals. We bought a piece of furniture to store all the shoes he gets from football. I don't own this many pairs. Not even close.
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