One of the books that she loves to have me read at bed time at the moment is one of her library books titled ‘Get into Bed’. It’s about a big bear, George, trying to get a little bear, Bartholomew, to get into bed and sleep. I think Nora just likes the voices I make and also that I sometimes change the characters to Mama and Nora.

Most times, bedtime is a nice affair… sometimes it can be very testing.

Like this evening.

After watching Charlie and Lola, she went to switch the TV off signaling that she’s ready to listen to her bedtime stories. So I took her to bed and tucked her in, reminded her to read her d’oa and read her stories. Once I’ve finished reading the fifth book, I told her it is time for her to sleep. Which she knows but that doesn’t mean that she’s going to make it easy for me tonight.

First she asked for Cookie Monster, who was in the front room, so I went to get him for her. Then she said she wanted to sleep on my bed. I said OK, took her to my bed, and sometimes it is easier to get her to fall asleep on my bed than hers. But once we got comfortable, she started crying and said she wanted to sleep on her bed.

We went back to her room and she asked for Cookie, which she threw away earlier on as she decided she didn’t want to sleep with Cookie. So when I’ve tucked her in with Cookie, she insisted she wanted to go to the toilet. Took her to the toilet and put her back in her sleep sack after and lay Cookie next to her again. She picked Cookie up and threw him to the end of her bed and picked up Milllenium Bear instead.

After much grumbling and not being happy with anything… she fell asleep… just like that.

And I am now very tired.