By ELKE GOVERTSEN
I am usually out of gas at bedtime. I am ready to quit. I don’t know how I will make it through the next hour of showers, towels, flushing and brushing. But once we hit the bedroom I am golden.
In there the lights go down, the glowing stars do their glowing and world finds its axis. And so do I.
I made my boys blankets for their beds. They have the solar system on them. I tuck the entire universe around them at night, fleecy side down so they don’t feel the chill. It doesn’t matter how the day went at that point, what the kids at school did, how my day at work was. We are in our own universe; it is made out of cotton.
I read them stories. The ones I loved when I was little. They know that if they ask for one more chapter I will always, always give it to them. And again.
The room is cold, the bunk beds are cozy, the cat jumps on the top bunk and the dog settles in next to the bottom bunk with a “Harrumph.”
My boys get smaller as they get sleepier. I can remember that they are little as their eyes get heavy. During the day, I always forget and start to expect them to act like adults. Well-behaved adults. Who can do their own work and who can be patient and hurry up. But in their little room in the basement, I am reminded that they are small. And that I am big. And that they still need me and I really, really want that to last.
Just like I want bedtime to last forever and the stars to keep glowing.
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Bio: Elke Govertsen is the publisher of Mamalode
which is a magazine and website for area moms. When not juggling her family, business, and the laundry (disclosure – there is no laundry being done whatsoever) Elke tries to eek out time to write, do yoga, and read like a fiend.
