March 08, 2004
The Big Bananarama
One problem we don't have -- usually -- is getting Alan to go to bed.
This is because we have developed an extremely elaborate bedtime ritual. How elaborate, I'm almost embarrassed to say. But it goes on for a while, and includes a bath, reading books, brushing teeth, songs, a game of hide-and-seek with Mommy, and hitting the bathroom's radiator with a stick. At the end of it, though, he's almost always ready to crash, and he doesn't (usually) wake up until 6:30 the next morning.
The ritual is not absolutely fixed; we are constantly adding (and less often, subtracting) little odds and ends. For instance, recently, I started singing the following nonsense verse to him while putting on his pajamas:
Pajama! Pajama! The big bananarama!
He's wearing the pajamas with the stripes!
This is repeated four times. If you're interested, the tune is that of the theme song from the old "Dick van Dyke Show".
Where this comes from... I have no idea. But Alan likes it, and at every pause in the verse he says, "Yama!" (He's still working on that 'J' sound.)
And that's all.
Posted by douglas at March 8, 2004 11:18 AM