Bedtime

Sometimes I wish my kids would go to bed as easily as my dog does. When I put my dog to bed, I send him outside to use the potty, then he comes inside, we go down to the basement, he crawls into his cage, and I don't hear from him the rest of the night.
My boys, on the other hand:
Go upstairs to get pajamas on. Mikey and Roger get their own on while I get Grant changed. After I'm done with Grant, I go into the bathroom, paste up their toothbrushes and start on helping William get changed. Mikey and Roger brush their teeth - supposedly at least. Roger likes to stop and think and play while he is performing a task. He will spend a lot of time with his pants off because he got distracted while getting changed. I turn on a little stream of water for Grant to "brush" his teeth with., which helps to distract him as I help his brothers. After getting William dressed, I help him brush his teeth.
We usually spend a couple of minutes picking up dirty clothes and such. Then we read scriptures together on Roger's bed - Grant joins us, but then will run back and forth between us and the water in the bathroom, then if the boys were obedient and quick to get ready, we will read a story or two. This also happens to be my threat... they get really scared when I threaten to not read the scriptures... silly boys don't realize that regardless of their actions, reading scriptures is a requirement for them, but I'll continue letting them believe it's a privilege.

After reading, we will have several family prayers (because more than one person has to say a prayer). Then the boys will get into bed. They may or may not get a song - again depending on how the bedtime process goes for that evening, but they always get a kiss and an, "I love you".

Ahhhhh....done .....but not always.
Then someone cries that they have to go potty, then there is the playing, the jumping, the light turning on and off, the crying, etc. I find myself going up and down the stairs so frequently it makes me sore.

Sometimes I do wonder why they don't make cages for children... it works for my dog.