Bed Time Routine

I've taken 85 pictures today. I bet you can't guess what the main subject matter was of?! Okay maybe you can. Benjamin is growing so fast! He will be 8 months in 4 days. Crazy!

We started a bed time routine about 3 weeks ago of bath time, fresh diaper and PJ's, nursing and then sleeping. It took about 3-4 days for Benjamin to latch onto the routine which can start as early as 7:30pm or as late as 9pm (depends on our day and Benjamin).

So tonight we had dinner around 7:30 and Benjamin was in a pretty good mood. I personally thought he would play for a bit after dinner. I took him into the living room and Jared packed up dinner (thank you!) and Benjamin did play for a little bit. But then he took off down the hall way. I got up to go get him but he was sitting in front of the bathroom door saying "ba...ba...ba...". I asked him "do you want a bath?" He sat up a bit closer to the door. Jared and I were both amazed. He knew the routine and knew where to go to start it and wanted his bath.

Benjamin loves bath time! We recently moved his bath time into the hall bathroom so we can stop taking out all of our shampoo's etc as Benjamin decided it was fun to stand up and grab at them. And then also his toys can run a little a muck in there.

As the tub fills up Benjamin loves to sit there and try to catch or stop the water with his hands. Once the tub is full I have to move him to the back or middle to get him away from the drain as he will pull the plug. He loves his rubber ducky and the blue number 2 for chewing on. If we give him the wash cloth dry he will soak it and suck the bath water out of it. Jared decided last week that it was because he was thirsty. So we've started giving him water to drink after meals and he really is thirsty. He loves to drink out of actual cups because that is what he sees us doing.

After Benjamin plays for awhile I wash his hair and his body. Then we pull the drain and he watches the little whirlpool that gets created as the drain sucks all of the water gone. Jared usually enters at this point and picks up the towel. I grab Benjamin and hand him over to Jared. We then retreat to our bed where Jared has laid out the diaper, PJ's, pacifier and anything else that might be needed.

It's so amazing to us that Benjamin knows the routine and expects it. If we try to stray he lets us know what we should be doing.

Here is Benjamin standing up getting ready to do a seat drop.

Here he is after a seat drop which he is very proud of.