Falling Asleep

I know lots of people who have trouble getting their kids to fall asleep. There's always some excuse... I need a drink, I have to go potty, I need a hug, I'm scared, I'm not tired, I'm hungry, I can't find (insert stuffed animal's name here). Of course we read... a lot. Either they each pick out 2 books, or we'll read a chapter or so in whatever big story we're in the middle of, these days it's the Chronicles of Narnia. I'm talking about after the storytelling, praying, tickling and tucking in. After the last kiss and nuzzle, what to do when they're still unsettled...

One night I told Ryan to count to 1000 to help his brain get tired. The next morning, he informed me that he only got to 758 before falling asleep. I almost spit my milk through my nose; he actually counted to 758? Wow, maybe he really wasn't very tired to begin with! The next night he counted the rest of the way to 1000. That was a long time ago, now we have much more creative ways to make their brains tired...

We play I-Spy, all kinds of alphabet games, name the presidents, review states and capitals, and our latest is the country game. We lay there naming countries in turn and every single time I run out of countries before Ryan does. That globe he got for Christmas is really teaching him a lot! He has a growing list of all the places he wants to visit. In order: Brazil, Arkansas, Qatar (because it rhymes with guitar), Argentina, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (because it has the most syllables of all the countries- 16).

Have you ever played an imaginary game of Uno? Ryan and I like to play this game in his bed at night. It goes something like this: me: red 8, Ryan: blue 8, me: blue 5, Ryan: blue 9, me: yellow 9, Ryan: yellow skip, blue skip, green skip, green 2, me: green reverse, green 3, Ryan: "Oh man, I was about to have Uno, but I don't have any green cards" and he "draws" about 10 cards (presumably so this imaginary game can continue for 20 minutes and he can manipulate me into staying in bed with him, but I don't mind). The game continues for at least a hundred more turns, until finally Ryan wins in a flurry of skip, draw 2, reverse, and wild cards. I, shocked to have lost, leave him with happy dreams of kicking my butt at imaginary Uno. We've tried also to play imaginary Battleship but I can't keep track of where I put my ships and Ryan gets very frustrated with me. Imaginary Chess is rediculously tricky to keep track of too!

Speaking of Uno, there is nothing cuter than Claire playing Uno with us. Picture all 5 of us at the kitchen table with our cards, happily playing a round of Uno. Claire sporadically tosses a card from her stack onto the pile. It's never the right color or number, but we don't mind. She's so happy to just be there. Eventually she gets down to her last card and announces "Oh-no!" It really is the cutest thing!