Every night after dinner since my daughter was a tiny baby, we do dinner, bath, stories, and snuggles. With each passing year, as she gets bigger and bigger, I know that bedtime snuggles will someday be a thing of the past. When she was three, I thought there might only be a year or two of bedtime snuggles left. When she was seven and eight years old, I really thought each night might be one of the last. I would hold her a little tighter, feeling the bittersweet feeling of wanting her to stay little, but knowing she would grow up.
Now she’s eleven, and we still do dinner, followed by bath, stories, and snuggles. Her bedtime is still just as early as ever, and the whole routine still takes just as long as ever. In fact, if I try to sneak out too soon she gets upset and cranky (and loud), ruining our peaceful bedtime routine, and potentially waking up her younger brother in the bedroom next to hers. So now we have a ritual where I set a timer for snuggles. She makes me show it to her to be sure it’s for ten minutes and not a minute less (she caught on when I started sneaking out after five or six minutes).
Tonight, as I was reading to her and she was getting ready for snuggles, she curled up at the end of the bed, near my feet. Mid-chapter, she crawled around in circles, and pawed at the bed, just like our dog, Indie likes to do. She thought she was being hilarious (and she kind of was).
“Lily, stop being Indie. I’m trying to read to you.”
“Woof. Arf!” She giggled and wagged her butt.
I continued to read, only to be interrupted by a ridiculous level of dog-sounds, more pawing, more circling to make the perfect spot at my feet. Finally, she, rested her chin on my legs, the same way Indie would. I rolled my eyes and continued on.
Will my daughter always want stories and snuggles? Part of me knows that of course, someday she will outgrow it. But… maybe this kid just loves stories and snuggles!
She is a middle schooler now. She still plays pretend, and has storytime, snuggles, and still sleeps with a blankie. The difference is, she would murder me if she knew I was posting this! (Hahahahaha!)
Every Tuesday my Two Writing Teachers colleagues and I host the Slice of Life Story Challenge. Teachers from all around the world participate in sharing a story each week.