Every night, it’s the same routine:
Potty, brush the teeth, get into jammies (pyjama), pick two books, read the books in bed while drinking milk with the first one, water with the second one, tug into bed, get the toy Pluto and cat, hug, kiss and finally, lights off.
We religiously stick to this routine and that enables a predictable bedtime for Ro. But lately he’s testing his limits and is starting to negotiate changes. When we say: “Two books!” He comes back: “Three!?”, or asks for orange juice instead of milk and so on. He’s really creative. (Who can turn down a kid in the middle of potty training who claims after the lights are off that he has to go!? – Gotcha, Daddy! – “Thanks, Ro for telling me! Ohh, that is a small one! But we’ll call it a p… anyway”)
After all else fails and the lights are finally off he now reliably declares after 15min:
“I’m ready!” indicating that he’s done sleeping. That’s the announcement he uses in the morning to tell us he’s awake.
When you tell him that it’s night now and even the sun went down, he argues: “but my eyes aren’t tired!”.
It’s so amusing and we often have a hard time keeping our serious looks on our faces to convince him that he actually has to sleep now.
On a recent night I had to make a phone call right after he went down. Still awake he shortly after declared “I’m ready!”, so I had no choice but to lie down in the dark with him in his huge Queen size bed. I talked a long time on the phone and he was happily cuddling with me in the dark.
When I finally hung up, I kissed him good night again and told him that “Daddy will be outside now”.
Ro surprised me by saying:” OK” – only to add shortly after with a serious expression  “I’ll keep your arm!”
I just had to hug him again for that one!

Needless to say I took my arm along …