When my oldest children were small, we had a definite bedtime routine. It was something that we all looked forward to, including me. And not just because it meant they were all going to bed and I could finally relax before going to bed myself and beginning the madness that is a several children who can not do a single thing for themselves.

It was a time to reconnect and let everything that had happened during the day slip away. It is hard to be exasperated by a toddler in jammies, whose head smells like baby shampoo. It is actually more difficult not to take a bite out of their adorable freshly scrubbed cheeks. Somehow all the tantrums, coloring on the walls, food throwing, or what have you seemed unimportant in those minutes before bed.

We would all snuggle into into one of their beds and I would read stories. Sometimes one or two, sometimes several, depending on the evening. I have fond memories of working my way through a Mother Goose nursery rhyme book with my oldest two. I would do different voices depending on the rhyme. They still laugh when they recite :

Fee Fi Fo Fum
I smell the blood of an Englishman
be he alive
or be he dead
I’ll crush his bones
To make me bread.

Ah yes, those loving and nurturing nursery rhymes. I am not sure why, but this particular nursery rhyme requires that you talk in a low grovely voice with an English accent. You know those English are known for being cannibals.

Thankfully most of the nursery rhymes were a bit less disturbing. If one can call locking one’s wife inside of a pumpkin shell or whipping your children soundly before bed not disturbing.

As time passed though, and our lives got more hectic, we moved away from the bedtime routine. Evenings became a stressful time of juggling the often conflicting needs of different aged children.

Recently I decided to reinstate the bedtime stories with my youngest two children, ages 2 and 4. With several older siblings I have found they seldom have time geared just for them. And when they do, they eat it up. I told the older children that I would be doing bedtime stories with the two youngest. Surprisingly on any given night quite a few of them will wander into my room to listen. Even if they are pretending they are not listening and it was just happenstance they came by my bedroom at that specific time.

The older ones will reminisce about hearing the bedtime stories when they were little, like it was eons ago. I can’t believe how quickly time has flown by. To me it was just yesterday my eleven and twelve year olds were the toddlers snuggled with me, as cliche as that might sound.

In the process, I have rediscovered some of my favorite bedtime stories. These have been on heavy rotation the past couple of weeks.

This is a board book, which is perfect for toddler hands. My two year old loves this book. It might have something to do with the fact that I allow him to jump on the bed while I read it.

This is another board book with rhyming text that any parent will have committed to memory after a few readings. This one has been a hit in our house this past week after we spotted a brown bear of our very own in our yard. YIKES! We have also had fun with this book by adlibbing our own text.

I love this story and not just because I have seven children. It is one of those books that appeals to the harried mother in all of us. The illustrations are perfect and the children find new things in each page that capture their attention.

My four year old daughter is at the age where she is obsessed with princesses. I find it painful, to put it mildly. Even though for her it is all about the costumes and accessories, the message behind some of the stories bothers me. This story is the perfect antidote to all the ones of princess who need to be rescued.

What about you? Do you have any bedtime stories that are being read over and over again at your house?