An Amusing Nightly Tale

My household, let's face it, is a bit crazy. With 2 "adults", 3 kids all younger than kindergarten, and now we're talking about adding a dog to the mix (I'll go into that in another post at some other time), that's pretty much to be expected. But crazy isn't bad. For us, it's normal.

When life is crazy, there are always amusing moments. And some of those happen on a nearly daily basis. I want to describe one.....

Every night, we have a set bedtime routine that we follow. It may not be the wisest activity set, but it works for us. It starts with dinnertime. After dinner we head upstairs. The kids run around and play in the bedrooms until about 6:45, when it's time to really get down to business. Bathtime and getting into PJs follow. We turn on the TV and watch music-based shows, ending with The Wiggles, and at around 7:45, we head into the twins' room for 3 short books. Then Daniel leaves the room, Kevin and I say our "Good Night"s to the two of them, Kevin leaves, and I sing 2 songs (the same ones every night). I say my final "Goodnight"s and climb over the gate blocking their door and head into Daniel's room for the completion of HIS bedtime routine. Rachel and Simon jump out of their bed (immediately), and head for the closet. We can hear the door open and slam shut behind them.

After we finish our bedtime routine with Daniel, I head downstairs, but I peek into the twins' room to be sure they're in bed (which, of course, they're not). I say in a (relatively) loud voice, "Rachel, Simon, BED!!" All of a sudden (and note, this happens ALMOST EVERY NIGHT), the closet door swings open with such force I'm amazed it doesn't go flying, and out ZOOMS Rachel. She's shouting "And go to sleep!" (which I will repeat). I call out, "You too, Simon!". Simon comes meandering out of the closet and repeats "And go to sleep!" (again, I repeat). They both jump into their respective beds and act sweet and innocent. By the time I get to the stairs (note, the stairs are RIGHT OUTSIDE their bedroom), Simon is already out of bed, and he's climbing into Rachel's bed (but heads over to close the closet door first). By the time Kevin comes downstairs about 5 minutes later, he will often find at least one of them asleep (both are usually asleep within 15 minutes of my final encounter with them) and they are cuddled together until I separate them before going to bed about 2 hours later.

It's funny -- they started sharing a bed about a week before Halloween, and have fallen asleep like that nearly every night since. But they've NEVER done this in Simon's bed -- it's either Rachel's bed or the floor.

I wouldn't say the two of them are growing apart, but they do spend most of their time apart, but they still have that connection, and for now, this seems to be the way they can keep it alive. I don't know how much longer I'll be able to keep them in the same room, but I still enjoy these moments and hope that this is a sign that, even though they are in different programs that take much of their day, their twin connection is still there and still strong. It may not be visible to most the rest of the time, but it's definitely present at night. And, when Simon wakes during the night, which happens more often than not, he always climbs back into Rachel's bed before falling back to sleep. They still need that contact with each other. THIS can't last forever, but I hope the connection will always be there.