Snuggle time

James is not cuddly. In fact, he insists that he does NOT like kisses. However, I do get about 5 to 10 minutes of James snuggle time when I read to him before bed at night. It's sweet, really. All I have to do is lie down by him and put my left arm up over my head. This is his signal to snuggle up to me, usually putting his head right up on my shoulder. We read, cuddled up, and it is one of the best highlights of my day.
For Kaitlyn's bedtime routine, we read stories, and then sing with the light off and rock in the chair. When we sit down to read, she likes to ask for certain books, just not quite by name yet (she's great with "Peek-a-Who" that we inherited from the Miller kids). Songs do have names though... and usually the first one she asks for is "Twinkle", then "Blackbird" and then "Sunshine" and "Lala" (which I take to assume she means Lullaby). It's really sweet to hear her ask for these songs, and the other night she actually was singing along with me. She'd only say the last word of the line, but it was so sweet, and I was so proud that she knew it!
Another cute thing that Kaitlyn does during song time is rest her head on my shoulder and put her arms around me. When I sing, she lies down, when I stop, she sits up. As SOON as I start another song, back down she goes. So cute.

Update: Nathan informed me last night after putting Kaitlyn to bed that she really enjoys her bedtime routine. When you try to stray from the routine and skip a step, like rocking in her glider and singing, she does NOT take it well. Last night Nathan read to her, put her in her crib and said goodnight. Kaitlyn's response?
She pointed her finger and said, "NO! Twinkle! Chair!"
So Nathan said that they sat down in the rocker and "twinkled it up"- ha.

God tapped me on the shoulder last night.

Nathan and I weren't feeling that great last night, for different reasons, but none-the-less, we were tired and cranky. The kids were both in bed and both awake, but it was Kaitlyn that was a motor mouth. I decided to go up and check on her to see if she had filled her diaper when I noticed that James' door was cracked open. I knew that Nathan had closed it after tucking him into bed... hmmm... suspicious.
I walked in to his room to find James in bed cuddled up at the foot of his bead rather than at the top (not unusual). I casually asked him if he had dirtied his diaper, and gave him a good pat on the bottom to see if his diaper was wet or anything. WHAT? NO DIAPER!
I investigated further and found that he had gone to the bathroom, taken off his diaper to go potty, put his jammy shorts back on and gotten back into bed. All by himself! Good boy James... but you need that diaper!
I asked him why he didn't have his diaper on, and he says, "I just want to try tonight without a diaper on." Awww, what a courageous little boy. I calmly explained to him that his diaper is usually soaked in the morning and if he wanted to try that sometime, nap time would be better than nighttime and that he could still try to "hold it" all night to see if he could keep his diaper dry. He agreed, diaper went on, and off I went back downstairs.
His diaper was like a lead canon ball this morning. Whew. Good call on my part. Ha.