Bedtime.

I've got Lewis's bedtime ritual down now.  About 80% of the time it is flawless.  Not a peep after I leave the room.  About 15-18% of the time we have some fussing and the other times the mark has been sorely missed and we just have to start over.  Anyway, we read a few books, I sing him "By and By", a lullaby I learned in music class, then I hum the song for a while, rocking in the chair.  Take his sleepy but still awake body to his bed and plop him in.  A little more humming and patting and I'm OUT OF THERE!  80% success rate is not bad at all.  I would even go so far as to call it at 88%.  

It reminds me a little bit of a magic lullaby I had going with Art about a year ago.  It was one I learned from a kid's songbook someone gave me.  It got to a point where all I had to do was start singing this song and Art would lay down.  He could be sitting up and trying to talk about something and I could start singing, "Bye bye, baby... Hushaby...." and he would flop over snuggle into his pillow.  Ben will attest to it.  It was magic.  We even talked about how I needed to use that power responsibly - not to abuse the gift - and that it would eventually lose it's potency.  Ahhh... Those were magic times! 

Tonight Lew's bedtime routine fell into that 10% of slight fussing, but nothing major.