No, no, no stories

The post over at Sunday Scribblings this week is bedtime stories. Who doesn't love a bedtime story? Without a doubt, bedtime story hour is the best moment of the day for me. The ingredients can't be beat: a warm, clean, sweet-smelling boy wearing pajamas and tucked in with his blankies and me in my pajamas. One reason that JT has a big bed is so that we can be there together for story hour. I picked out warm, soft bedding to make his bed a welcoming place. Each night, we lie in his bed and read and talk and compare notes on our world. Sometimes I tell him a story from when I was a little girl – he loves that. Then the lights go out and the bedtime lullabies are turned on. JT asks to have his back scratched and, as he snuggles under the quilt, I gently pat his head and watch my boy fall asleep.

This has been the bedtime routine for JT since he was first born. When he was very little and regarded sleeping as an unnecessary distraction, he would say "No, no, no stories" when bedtime was announced. But then I would sit in his bed with a copy of "Good Night Moon" and he couldn't resist.

He's learning to read these days and I know that my bedtime story days are numbered. I'll be sad to let those moments go, though the thought of him tucked into his bed reading a book to himself is also pretty satisfying. And maybe one day JT will have a little boy of his own eager to hear a story read to him. And then my son will pass on the tradition, feathering his child's nest, cuddling up with a book and perhaps even talk about the stories his Mama once read to him.