Bedtime Evolution
Our bedtime 'ritual' for the kids has changed over the years. I can't say it's always a 'ritual' either. Sure... sometimes we do the book reading and off to bed. However, it seems that it often involves music.
When the kids were real young (and we were on the 1st floor) I would put them in a sling and dance them to sleep via DDR. Ahhh yes Dance Dance Revolution was awesome. I would decrease the difficulty and/or find songs without jumps and the kids would be rocked to sleep with trendy techno music.
Later, Jamie went through a stage of wanting to watch Disney's Fantasia. She would lie down and usually be out when it got to 'The Sorceror's Apprentice'.
Video games seem to work well. The combination of something to keep me up and the music to help the kids relax. RPGs rank in the top of putting kids out for their long stretches of distances accompanied by musical scores(Final Fantasy X, Kingdom Hearts I&II, Dragon Quest VIII). But even other music titles put them out sometimes... the kids have gone out while following Ulala's adventures in Space Channel 5 a few times.
The most recent music game.... Guitar Hero II! After playing a few of the faster kid favorites as openers ('Shout at the Devil', 'Trogdor', and 'Elephant Bones') I start into finding slower songs. I still haven't beaten 'Freebird' on Expert Mode, and Jamie rarely makes it to the solo section of the song. Cian is about to fall over after the second Freebird attempt, and at that point I switch over to 'Carry on my Wayward Son' or 'Sweet Child of Mine'.
:D And in the words of Dr. Kawashima... Hoo hoo ha!
