Encore! Encore!

Lucie and Ryan have developed a multiple step, highly choreographed bedtime ritual. After reading a pile of books, singing several versions of "I'm bringing home a baby bumble bee", turning off the closet and bathroom lights, setting up the humidifier (a.k.a. "motor"), patting motor good night, and taking "three more sips!" from their water bottles, they're finally ready to grab Ducky or Bunny and settle down to sleep. Some nights, however, we'll go through this entire dance only to be called back in ten minutes later for an encore of hugs or tuck-ins.

Last night was an evening of multiple encores. After Ryan's third desperate request for us to come back in after bedtime (once for a hug and kiss, another for kleenex), I asked him, "What's the problem tonight, buddy?" He grabbed his pajama-clad foot, started crying and declared, "Mommy, my toe is nawh working!"

I came out of the room laughing — a dysfunctional toe? That's a new one. Fortunately, it was nothing a short toe massage couldn't fix. After that they were both so tired out from requests (or simply ran out of new ideas) that we didn't hear from them or their toes again until morning.