The Night Sky

Tonight it was just me and the girls. We started our usual bedtime routine-the girls drink their milk while I read them a bedtime story. Tonight was special; I read them two stories. The first one was silly- "The Ten Rubber Ducks", which both girls love because it has a squeaky button to push at the end. After they each get to push the button a couple times, we move on to our second book. I chose to read "Going to Sleep on the Farm" because it has such a nice rhythm to it, hoping the rhythm will gently prepare my little ones to sleep. By the end of the story, I am feeling their weight on either side of me...ahh, my plan has worked!

We get up to proceed to our next nighttime step: putting our milks in the fridge and then brush our teeth. Every night it's the same thing. The girls each put their milks in the fridge, fight over who gets to close the door, and then run to the bathroom because each one wants to be the one who gets to wet the toothbrushes. As soon as the refrigerator door closes, Mara gives me the pacifier out of her mouth. Every night, without fail. On the nights that she does not happen to have her pacifier in her mouth, she will still put her hand to her mouth and give me "air".
Every time.

But tonight went a bit differently. As we got up to walk to the fridge, Analese says "Look at the sky, Mommy. It's beautiful". It was beautiful. The sun was almost down, and the sky was streaked with orange and blue with gray clouds floating by. We walked over to the window and looked outside for awhile. (This took quite a bit of convincing my little Mara, who was screaming by the fridge, and not at all prepared to break her routine!)

Analese stared out the window for awhile, and talked about all the colors she saw. Then there was the clouds. She said she could see things up in the clouds, so I asked her to describe to me what she saw.
This is what she saw:

" a crocodile eating a pickle"

"a little tiny mouse drinking a really tiny cup of tea"

" a roe (?) eating a bug. It's a very special bug, called a Round. It's really, really big and special, and round..."

"A lion eating up some bones and things"

I wanted to hear more, but my impatient child was crying by the fridge. I went into the kitchen to open up the door, and Analese came in and said 'That was really beautiful Mom. Thank you for sharing the night sky with me". As I kissed her goodnight in bed, she thanked me again, and told me we had to be sure and tell Daddy about the sky...oh, and about the crocodile eating a pickle!

That completely made my night.