Bedtime..

I've never had much trouble with a bedtime routine for baby boogie. Of course, I didn't realize how blessed I was until I started swapping stories with other moms..

"He goes to bed at 7pm?!"
"I have to lay down with my daughter, rock her to sleep and give her a bottle!"

From 0-4 months, I dealt with the typical nursing, new baby, no sleep routine. After that, baby boogie wanted no parts of my boobs, so we switched to the bottle and he pretty much always slept through the night.

Until BB was about 13 months, I would give him dinner, a bath, lay him in his crib with a bottle or sippy cup and he'd go right to sleep. No drama. Minimal wake ups in the middle of the night.

A few months before his second birthday, BB didn't want a sippy cup at bedtime anymore.

Score!

He was content with being tucked in and the lights going off. No tears, no fanfare.. just his blanky and a kiss on the forehead.

Once we moved into our new casa, I wanted to have a typical bedtime. You know, like the kind you see on TV? lol.

Baby Boogie is turning 3 in September and can actually sit still for a story now.  So, my evening routine routine looks something like this:

Bath
Dinner
Play/TVtime
Story
Bed

Now, BB goes to bed at 8:30pm. I let him watch a little bit of TV, then at 8:25 I say, "come on baby boogie, its time to go read a story".

You notice I don't say 'Its bed time!"

Oh no.. don't say that!

For some reason, THAT is upsetting to him. But, he knows that reading a story means he's going to bed. Strange...

Anywho, We read three books. One in his rocking chair, then I tuck him in and read the other two books. Afterwards, we say our prayers and I sing "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" on repeat -- about five times.

{{blank stare}}

I posted that on Twittah the other night and of course the responses were hilarious!

But, this is what works 99% of the time.

That 1% fail?

When I let Snappy put him to bed!!

I give this man step by step instructions. A serious ZERO fail way for a successful bed time and Baby Boogie is always pissed.

"did you say prayers with him?"

YES!

"did you sing the song?"

YES!

I always end up having to do damage control and an abbreviated version of the routine.
1 book
Short prayer
1 loop of the song...

Snappy says I'm showing off when I do that...

You know what I say?

Don't hate the player sir. Hate the game!

If you're a parent, do you have a 'no fail' approach to bedtime?

Running!

One would think that losing thirty pounds wouldn't be this huge undertaking. Correct? Exercise, change my eating habits, etc...

Welp, let me tell you. Sh*t ain't been no crystal stair. Since I've had baby boogie, ohhhh.... 2plus years ago, I've been trying to get back to my pre baby size.

To date I've only lost 11 pounds.

Yay.. cue the chorus..uh huh... that's great and all, BUT I'm still a dress size too big.

So, I've decided I'm going to run the weight off.

I always see white folks running and looking so carefree..making it look so easy! So of course I though, I can do that! 

Then I noticed a lot of my cool blogger friends run, like Jameil.. K.Rock..

Black girls run too!

I can BE one of them. In my cool N.ikes and spandex..

So, in my effort to be a cool running mom, I've forced asked Jameil to be my virtual coach, simply because she's awesome! She runs, eats fried food and drinks beer. My bestie in my head, a girl after my heart.

Lord knows I've struggled and its only been THREE days!

But, I'm going to stick with it. Run my little heart out, melt this weight off and reach my goal of running a 5k in the fall.

Every step I take brings me just a bit closer to my dreams of being a MILF...