bedtime stories

In the ongoing attempt to find the magic routine that causes our children to quietly drift off to sweet slumber (hhhahahahaaahahahahahahaaa!!!!!), we started turning out the lights after reading stories and making up stories with the kids while they are lying in their beds. 

I have a couple of memories I hope I'll keep in my memory bank forever. One evening, the twins knew we were short on time. So, I think it was S, asked D to tell a super short story. Then she said, once upon a time...the end. And started cracking up. And so did R. And so did we. Perhaps her first joke!  We loved it. 

The other bedtime story experience I hope to always remember is that once D finishes, O also wants to tell a story. So he does. He is very imaginative. His stories are never similar to ours, which I would have thought would be the tendency. They're just spontaneous and random. They don't always have a beginning, middle and end. They're just his. And he doesn't hesitate or get stick and say he can't or have expectations and he doesn't care if they meet our expectations. He just shares. And I love that he shares his imagination with us.