When the sun goes down

I look forward to coming home at night.

Sy leaves with me in the morning. By the time we get home at night, we have been gone for 12 hours. The best part of both our days are spent with other people. Sy is lucky, he gets to spend it with Nana and Tata or Grandma and Grandpa.  At both houses, they play games, ride bikes, go to the park, watch their favorite cartoons on demand (thanks DVR), and let him "order" his meal.  Seriously, some days, I would like to move in on that gig.    

I get to spend mine at an office with people, who are nice, but not BFF types (at least not to me). And I get to try to justify my rung on the corporate ladder. And why I'm worthy of a full time permanent position, with benefits. This is why I went to college. Really.

Our evenings run like this...  Come in the house, I go to the bedroom to change. Sy runs to find Dada and say hello. If Dada isn't around, he picks up the first toy he comes to, or runs back out the door for his firetruck. We play for 30 minutes, get a bath, brush teeth, and then depending how long these have taken and how many meltdowns have been had, we either read a book, watch a cartoon together, or just go to bed.  If there is a chance to wolf down dinner in this time, I do it.

It's a good routine. Sy knows it and looks forward to it. You can't mess it up. The only thing that can change is when he has his milk. It can be before bath or after bath but it has to be before brushing teeth and he can't have milk in bed, only aqua.

Once you finally have him in bed, we have to check for all the monitos, blue pillow, and the closet light has to be on.  Then it's scratch my leg, scratch my arm, now rub my arm, with both hands, now scratch my back, up by my neck.

I enjoy the time when I lay with him on his bed. He asks great questions, says the funniest things, and tells me stories about his day I would not otherwise hear or know about.

This wind down time makes it easier for him to go to sleep calmly and sleep soundly and for me, it makes me feel connected to a little boy that I only get to see for a few hours 5 days a week.