Peace at Last

I have a new favourite moment of the day. It comes sometime between 6.30pm and 7.00pm. The new moment is blissful, peaceful and so full of love I could just eat it. Can you eat a moment? I want to eat this one.

Firstly, Duck goes to bed. Somehow, largely thanks to my hard working husband, the 11 month old whose sleep patterns nearly killed me has turned into a 1 year old whose sleep patterns are edging towards actual real-life normality. He goes to bed. Just like that. Then he's asleep. It's weird to be honest. I love it. But that's not the moment. After I lay a 'sleepy but awake' Duck  (check me out, just like the books say!) down next to his huge Iggle Piggle (a cuddly toy that is almost as big as him), I come downstairs.

I find my big grown up, pant-wearing (as yet unsuccessfully) Bambi watching TV. None of your babyish shows for him anymore, oh no, now he's all about Gigglebiz, which is a bit like the Fast Show... a lot like the Fast Show, but with Mr Tumble in. Next to him is my husband who always, ALWAYS, gets tired when it's the boys' bedtimes. I like to think my mood-lighting and bedtime routine voice is just so soporific that even adults can't resist its charms. They are lying together on the floor, Bambi is awake, Daddy is more often than not, asleep. That's pretty cute, but it's not my new favourite moment.

Bedtime stories

Bambi is a big book lover. He could (and would) recite the Gruffalo word for word if you asked him. Or even if you didn't.

Ditto Dogger, Five Minutes Peace, Each Peach Pear Plum, and a bizarre old book from my husband's childhood called Mr Gumpy's Outing in which a man has a boat and he lets farm animals get on it "so long as they don't bleat/kick/flap" and so on. Then they all misbehave and fall in the water, then they have a tea party and Mr Gumpy says goodbye.