little shadow dog

david has started the most adorable bedtime traditions with pace.  first it was sitting by his bed and talking about their days together.  my queue to leave was when pace looked up at me after i snuggled his nose goodnight and he'd say, "go, mama, go!"  and then he'd look at david with a big grin and say, "sit, daddy.  do day?"  if david worked late, then he'd do the "do day routine" with me.

next we started picking up pace to try and touch the moon and stars.  uncle jon erik sent max a cute sleepytime turtle--you push a button and an led light turns on and stars and the moon shine on the ceiling and all the walls.  pace very quickly usurped this toy and it's now a part of his bedtime routine.  i figure the boys will be sharing a room in the next year or so, and then they'll both be enjoying the turtle.  so, when we turn the turtle on, we pick up pace and he asks to "touch this one, over there", or "touch moon", or "touch up high, daddy!"  this last request was pretty funny because pace has a natural aversion to heights.  even when wanting to touch the stars on the ceiling, he didn't want david to lift him too high.  david had to desensitize him.  now pace is fine touching as high as david can lift him.

and now, the cutest bedtime tradition.  this week david introduced "shadow dog"--a little dog made with his hands in the light of pace's nightlight.  shadow dog asks pace to count, participate in story telling, and best of all--sing along!  shadow dog takes requests, and pace loves asking shadow dog to sing "row row row" or "twinkle twinkle".  last night david said pace raised up his hand in the light, creating a shadow, and said, "look, daddy--little shadow dog, too!"  they proceeded to sing twinkle twinkle little star, howling after each verse.