creating his own ritual

I love a good bedtime ritual we've had one for Gunnar since he was 6 weeks old. It's changed a little as he has gotten older, for instance now the ritual starts with dinner, and after dinner we sometimes take a bath and then take our vitamins and brush our teeth, jammies & sleep sack comes next, followed by 3 stories from daddy and then lullabies from mommy and then we go straight to our crib with our sleep sounds on and owl lovey in hand, mommy whispers "night, night, sweet dreams, I love you Gunnar" which Gunnar repeats back every time.

Recently Gunnar's been helping us add a little to that ritual. After a visit to Nana's house where he slept under blankets for the first time, Gunnar has demanded this be the new staple over sleep sacks. He particularly asks for both his "monkey blanket" which was a gift from Besta for Christmas, and his "Owl Blanket" which is a beautiful quilt made by Grandma. And just last night he requested one more thing...

"Stars in the Sky" he said as he reached back up for one more hug. I picked him up and racked my brain to figure out what it was he was wanting...and then it came to me.  Maybe only once or twice after putting Gunnar to bed I have said to him "I love you Gunnar Miles, more than the sun and the moon and stars in the sky" and this is exactly what he was asking for....as I repeated it back to him he said "Yeah...love mommy more than stars in the sky. Night night. Sweet Dreams"

And as I put him down for his afternoon nap he said the same thing "Night, night, sweet dreams, love mommy more than stars in the Sky"...ritual complete.