bedtime rituals

below is a story of january 2009. tom never got to complete it until now, may 2009. many of these rituals have changed by may and if they're worth mentioning, they're added. it's funny to see how fast things change and how some things never come back without even noticing.

tom is sure all parents know this, but while he's writing, daughter mette is already in bed but still crying out loud (may09: mette never cries, only rambles in bed. sometimes her texts are hilarious, sometimes she sings. allard always goes to sleep right away) and she's asking for more of - at random:

"a bit of cream"
"a bit of music"
"spiderman under the cover" (onder de beker/deken)
"princess under the cover"
"two tissues"
"cold tissues"
"another song"
"wind the bambambam"
"happy birthday, dear james and mette"
"meisje ijsje" (the girl with ice cream)
"kolala"
"snortje"
"running nooooose"


tom knows what it means but even laurian sometimes has to ask him for advice because the bedtime ritual is tom's. like the other day in hong kong, laurian asked: "tom, is also part of your ritual for mette to have her throw her tooth brush into the sink and after that, also throw all attributes that stood on the side of the sink, into the sink but not the ones laying on the stand slightly higher?" tom: "uh, yes, sorry. it's kind-a-useless, i know".

just for laurian and everyone else who needs to know or is just interested what to do when it's time for mette to go to sleep, here's an explanation of the above:

category books
meisje ijsje - mette has the famous dutch book "pluk van de petteflat". mette calls the book after pluks girlfriend aagje who, on page 7, eats an ice cream. pluk, by the way is called puk by her, just like prikwater has for her the unfortunate name of pikwater (dickwater).
kolala - a huge book with drawings of all the animals in the world, named by her after the mother and child koala on the cover. kolala is a contraction with the words koala and cola that she already knew before because she was not allowed to drink it when her parents had it.
may09: her favorite book is an aussie children's song book (see below)


category songs
wind the bambambam - an english chrildren's song that goes wind the bobine up. mette made bambambam from it
happy birthday, dear james and mette - neighbor and best friend james trent (who's your friend...) had his 2nd birthday a month after mette. every time she sang she added more friends to the song but james and mette stuck. aaaaah. sweet!
another song - she thinks crying and calling out for another song helps, it doesn't.
may09: favorite songs from the aussie childrens songs book "in the old gum tree" are "bumped his head" (it's raining it's pooring), humpty dumpty, alack the skies are so black (anyone knows the melody?) and of course kookaburra sings in the old gum tree. recently the chrildrens prayer "ik ga slapen, ik ben moe" and the dutch national anthem including the "long live the queen, hurray, hurray, hurray"


category stuffed
a bit of music - music is the icebear that plays twinkle twinkle little star. the ritual has to be finished by the time it ends, otherwise she'll ask for more and that's tough if you've just locked the tent
princess under the cover (onder de beker/deken) - princess is a barbie-like doll of which mette decided that all the clothes had to be removed. she wants them to be under the cover before she goes to sleep
spiderman under the cover - that's the male princess doll. he is also undressed except for a sword in his hand that can't be removed. she calls him spiderman. it looks quite funny to see a naked man with a sword in his hand, being called spiderman
may09: spiderman had his nech broken and his head ripped off when he was dropped by mette and for a while he walked around with a cellotape neckbrace. in march he and princess were made to be disappeared by laurian and in april they left the van in a garbage bag. the favorite current dolls, or animals as she calls them, for under the cover are now:
* baby (in a sleeping bag made by grandmother de ru)
* konijn/bunny (the one that got lost and found on the glacier)
* apie/monkey
* two grote detten/grand dads (the ones that she thinks look like toms dad)
* feestje bouwen/have a party (used to be called popje. it has rice in it and she could shake it like a samba ball while calling out "feestje bouwen" after an african music piece at the voute centennial meeting)
* spiderman (a new one came as a toy at mcdonald's. this one has a black suit with a spider on his back and has wheels that make it look like he's crawling. a bit more masculin, really)


category attributes
a bit of cream - in hong kong she had fallen on her right eye and a little wound above her eye. she gets anti-scar cream from biodermal for it but of course daddy forgets sometimes. she never does. sometimes she's in bed and forgot she already had got it applied. those are the worst days because she keeps crying and asking for it. of course it's just a way of trying to not having to go to sleep yet
two tissues - todododo, todo todo, twee doekies (after the song can't touch this). tom doesn't know how it happened but somehow mette cannot go to sleep without these two babywipes
cold tissues - and they have to be fresh. so not the dry ones that were in the tent since yesterday - they get thrown out - but nice and fresh and wet that makes them feel cold
snortje, translates as little moustache. is her word for booger. somehow she always finds one sticking out her nose before she goes to sleep and daddy has to get rid of it
running nooooose - auntie tought her that concept and whenever she has that, particularly after long crying, it's an additional reason why daddy has to come back. he has to help her blow her nose
may09: as stated in the beginning, it's nice and simple now. brushing teeth, reading two bookies, animals under the cover, singing, tent closing and curtains closed. completely closed. she wants it to be completely dark.
cream is never asked for. now daddy has to remind himself especially since she has a second scratch by her right eye (from the boat to great barrier reef) although the first one is almost cured.
tissues have staid. laurian bought elmo tissues. mette can have one of those or two normal ones. one elmo is fine. the other morning mette wanted an elmo tissue to wipe. tom told her it was fine but then she wouldn't have one tonight. she still wanted it. that night came the moment of truth. still no elmo tissue. big time crying. together tom and mette ended up revamping the elmo tissue from the night before by wrapping him in two normal tissues and squeezing hard.


#mettesquotes:
still haven't had enough? liar! next time some fresh, wet and cold ones.