I have to point out what a great mom Carol is. We often get into a phase where some aspect of parenting isn't going like we want it to. We'll feel lost for a short bit and Carol's brain will be working the problem (unbeknownst to me). Then Viola! Carol comes up with a simple and elegant solution.
One recent example was our bedtime ritual. It had gotten a little sloppy over the summer, and even before that was taking longer than we wanted it to. Carol came up with a simple idea: an alarm clock that goes off at 8:00 and at that time stories are over and the girls have to be quiet in their beds. The girls know about the alarm, and if they choose to goof off brushing teeth or getting pajamas on then it costs them story time.
It works like a charm. At least for us. The girls often do goof off and sometimes end up with only 5 minutes for stories. Usually they do better than that. But they know and accept the routine.
After about a week we decided to move the alarm time to 7:30 because we wanted them to have the opportunity for more sleep.
Charlotte usually falls asleep around 8:00 now. Audrey, on the other hand, rarely falls asleep before 9:00. She stays quiet in her bed, but she'll look at books or draw pictures on her glow pad for quite a while. She'll sometimes call one of us up for a last hug and kiss. It's actually a favorite time of mine because I get to see the rare "calm Audrey".
Anyway, I just wanted to express my gratitude to Carol for being a wonderful mother. And for devising a system with the bonus of another hour alone with her in the evenings to be grown ups.
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