{singing & screaming & singing}

Since Kenzie has started having nightmares and thus has had trouble going to sleep at night, our routine has looked like this. We read our bedtime story, say our prayers, sing a lullaby, tuck the girls in. “I love you to the moon and back,” I whisper as I rub their backs. “Choo-choo?” the girls plead for daddy to draw a train on their back. Then they both start instructing. “Daddy sit. Daddy sing” while pointing to the rocker in the nursery. And Daddy obeys. As I sneak out of the room, whispering, “sweet dreams my darlings, sleep well, good night,” I listen to Daddy sing. The girls have started to throw out requests … with “baby” (aka hush little baby), “star” (aka twinkle twinkle little star) topping the charts. But he has also started mixing in some new hits. On the day that the girls went to the zoo it was “So we went on down to the Audubon Cincinnati zoo, and they all asked for you … yes they even inquired about you. The monkeys asked, the tigers asked, and the elephants asked me too!” Not a traditional lullaby, and probably louder than anything that I would sing as a lullaby, but it brought a smile to my face because that is Randall. These girls are so lucky to have such a fun & loving Daddy … who would sit and sing to his daughters for hours... because that’s just the kind of Daddy he is.

Kenzie is perfectly content as long as Daddy is singing, but as soon as he makes a move to leave she starts screaming… whether he has sung 1 song or 100 songs. So he has started to have to limit it to 2 songs, and then has to walk out and let her cry. This is when Lexi takes over. While Kenzie is screaming, Lexi is singing and talking to her sister ... and then somehow miraculously Lexi seems to calm her sister and they both drift off to sleep.

Kenzie & Lexi adore their Daddy and watching & listening to them interact makes me love them all that much more!