bedtime for bonzo

bedtime for bonzo it ain't. all ronald reagan had to do was feed that chimp a bottle of milk. our little monkey has a slightly more elaborate routine.

first, we put on a "mickey dipe" -- which comes complete with singing the mickey mouse club theme song with some slightly altered lyrics. jack now knows the song, and will sing along ...

mommy: m-i-c ...
jack: sooooon!!!
mommy: "c" you real soon ... k-e-y-
jack: why!!! love you!!!
mommy: "y" because i love you
unison: d-i-p-(he)-e

once that's complete, we read three books, say a prayer, and sing one song. jack picks the books (with some clever "management" by mommy so she avoids having to read the bob the builder book every night!)

but the books we pick do tend to be in a tight rotation, so that jack has learned to recite key parts of them. some of his favorites are:

sheep in a jeep (he does a hillarious faux-cry when it's "jeep in a heap ... sheep weep")

god loves you (mommy: "god made each part from your ..." jack: "head to toe!!")

goodnight america (he points to the capitol and says "daddy work cap'tal" and then "white house -- mommy work" while pointing at bush's domicile)

brown bear, brown bear, what do you see? (his favorite part is screaming "teacher" and then naming and making the sounds of each animal)

and, if mommy forgets, jack doesn't. he says "prayer" (which sometimes sounds like "pear") and we recite the prayer for a child.

mommy: bless the toys whose shapes i know, the ...
jack: shoes! boots!
mommy: the shoes and boots that take me to and fro and everywhere, bless my little ...
jack: rocking chair!

and of course we always end the prayer with "amen." or "amaim." again ... depends on your pronunciation.

finally, the song. jack usually requests "song moon." this becomes difficult when daddy puts jack to bed, because "song moon" comes from mommy's 4th grade musical -- an adaptation of james thurber's "many moons." daddy's right ... he can't possibly be expected to know that. so he sings "born to run," while i sing:

when i look into the sky i see you
your shining face is beaming as you smile down on me
you fill me life with happiness; oh why do i feel sad?
because i know that when i wake, you will be gone ...

at times it can be a lengthy routine. but at the end of the song, jack almost always says, "night night, mama." i lay him in his crib and he calls out "love you, bye, love you!" as i shut the door.

we'll call it bedtime for jackzo. and we look forward to it because despite the routine you never know what's going to happen next.