Bedtime

I have to say the best time of my day is bedtime. Although right now, my boys are fighting upstairs screaming "liar, pants on fire," and "Ezekiel hit me," or "Daniel's lying..he hit me first." They have supper around 5pm and then snack at 6:20pm or so...Then its time to brush teeth and get ready for bed. This may be early for some, but my boys take along time to get ready for bed and I have a ritual that I do with them every night. I spend about 15 minutes with them individually, where we talk, get tickled alot and play pretend games.
Tonight with Daniel who is my four year old, this consisted of him laying under his cover as he waits for me to come into his room. I can hear him giggling in anticipation for me to give him a jumper cable tickle, I can barely contain my own laughter when he does this. The rest of our time consits of alot of tickling and pretending I was a bird and he was a worm. So I pick him up and carry him to my pretend nest and tickle him some more. I love listening to him laugh so hard he can barely stand it. We pray, hug, give kisses and I remind him how much I love him.
Then onto Ezekiel my six year old who loves to play pretend. Tonight we did the bird and worm, lion and rhino and tiger and deer combinations. This usually is me pretending I am the animal he chooses for me to be and I tickle him and act like the animal. I am sure this would make quite a bit of people laugh at me if they could see me growling like a tiger or tweeting like a bird. He loves it and its a way for me to get into his world for a moment and spend some time with him. We also pray, hug and give kisses and then I do the fluff tickle, which is me fluffing the blanket a couple of times as he waits for the tickle explosion, which I suprise him with when he least suspects it. He makes me smile so much, I can feel my heart warming.
Then onto Elijah, my nine year old where we pray, hug and give kisses. I tickle him a little bit, but mostly we just talk about his day. Today he told me about his friend Hunter and he just knows Hunter has a crush on a girl named Olivia, because he wipes her kooties (sp) off of himself everytime she touches him and he smiles everytime she is around. This made me laugh because I have seen Elijah do the exact same thing with a girl he likes in his glass. Thankfully he still thinks kissing and stuff is gross, so I am not too worried. He also showed me his evil laugh he is working on right now. Alot of work to do yet. I told him I was scared, but wanted to laugh. He is also working on another magic trick he is trying to master and is wondering if I think he will master it. I told him he will and I can't wait to see it.
I turn all the lights off in the upstairs hall except for one by the bathroom and remind them all that I love them and to stay in there beds and no talking...or else!!
This time of the night is my favorite end to the day..that is until I look around at the mess downstairs that I still need to clean up. But I have to say there is a certain feeling of silence and peace knowing your children are tucked in for the night and now its time to relax before heading to bed yourself.
God's love is in everything, a childs smile or his laughter..so innocent and unconditional.