bedtime...

...is one of my favorite times of the day! it isn't exactly for the reason you might think, though. i admit, i do breath a sigh of relief when they are tucked in bed, lights out, door closed. i enjoy getting to take a break, watch tv, read a magazine, or run an errand by myself. i love the fact that for the next 12 hours, my tv won't be on nick jr, disney, or noggin. i also love being able to have a conversation with my husband without being interrupted by shouts of "i neeeeeeed to go pottyyyyy!!" these aren't the only reasons i love bedtime, though. at bedtime, i get to listen to their giggles through the monitor and hear them talk about the fun things they did that day, and their plans for the next day. i can eavesdrop on their conversations, songs, and silliness. for some reason, they hardly ever fight after going to bed. in the minutes (okay...maybe an hour) between lights out and eyes shut, i almost forget what the day has been like. it seems almost unimaginable that those sweet little girls in there were the same fit-throwing, fighting, screaming, crying girls that were in my house this afternoon. almost. bedtime brings the hope that tomorrow will be different. quieter. it usually isn't. bedtime, though, gives me time to rememeber the sweetness that somehow gets lost each day around 4:30pm. but once 4:30 rolls around the next day, i'm less than 4 hours away from bedtime again!