Night Night Rituals - Day 8

Every night after dinner, usually Elliot gets to play for a few minutes in the living room. Play for him consists of bringing us books to read to him. He's so funny because he'll bring books and insist that you read them, only to walk away a page or two into the book. After a bit, Sam will ask Elliot if he's ready to go "Night Night". Elliot will walk (or run) to the gate at the bottom of the stairs and slap it until daddy comes and opens it. He then climbs up the stairs, usually saying "bye bye" to me still sitting on the couch. I'll ask for kisses, which he'll blow to me as he is climbing the stairs. Tonight, Sam asked for help getting Elliot ready for bed (Sam cut his finger on the food processor blade and wasn't sure he had the dexterity to change a diaper). I of course obliged, looking forward to finally being able to put Elliot's clean clothes away. Sam helped him brush his teeth and then I change Elliot and Sam gets his dressed in his jammies. We sing the Shema to him and Sam and Elliot settle in for a marathon book reading adventure. During this ritual, we always end with the same book. Elliot knows that when daddy reads Pajama Time, it's time for sleep. So Elliot tends to ask for more books, I guess as a stall tactic before getting to the final book. If he's really tired, we won't even make it through the final book before he has wiggled off Sam's lap and is standing by his crib.Over the last couple of weeks he has had a cold off an on and we have been pushing the fluids. Extra fluids tends to lead to more wet diapers during the night, which leads to Elliot waking up once or twice. We have a ritual for that too. That's where mommy gets to shine! I will pick him up, change his diaper, turn out the light and then we rock. We sing two songs - "You are my Sunshine" and "Hush little baby". I usually ask him to "lay down keppe", which he does on my shoulder while I sing. After that, he is so good at going back to sleep.Tonight Elliot didn't want to sleep. Sam read him at least five books and he even came to me to give me hugs and kisses, but was not thrilled about being put in his crib. So, I had a bit of mommy time with him. We rocked and I sang and put him down, but apparently he still wasn't ready. Five minutes after he stood up at the edge of the crib crying, daddy came to the rescue. Daddy hugged him, told him it was "night night time" and laid him back down. Less than a minute later he was out! My little man is such a good sleeper.After going through a period of time where Elliot would wake up every 45 minutes and we would have to sleep on the couch with him, we tried sleep training and it has been the greatest thing ever. Hence why the nighttime ritual is so very important. This is my favorite part of the day - my son is sleeping peacefully in his bed surrounded by love and I have time to be alone with my thoughts and be alone with my husband.Good night sweet prince!