What time do your kids go to bed?

For those of you that don’t know Tavia, she is pretty amazing. I mean I married her and because I’m her husband that makes her pretty amazing. I’m the part that makes her amazing.

I kid.

But really, she is pretty awesome and I knew that two weeks after our first date. I wanted to marry her that fast and all it took was 10 dates in 14 days, some truly disgusting mint mojito gum, at least 4 different routes to her house that first week, and some male camel toe. Not mine. She wasn’t quite ready to get married so quickly so we dated, broke up, got back together, get engaged and married in about 11 months. It was a pretty busy 11 months.

If you know what I mean.

Not that. There was none of that. But there was work, school, dates, food, flowers, exercise, concerts, hikes, a trip to North Idaho and Ohio. Lots of conversations about the future, goals, hopes, and dreams.

Life changes when you are single and get married. I won’t say it was better to be single but it was different. My focus was myself when I was single. When Tavia was added to my life I no longer was able to just think about myself. There was someone else I had to think about too.

A little over a year later shtuff got even more different. Our little Ruby arrived. I’ll forever be changed now that I’m a father. Suddenly I had a shadow. It’s crazy. Even today if you ask me which one of my kids is the most like myself I tell you it is Ruby. Until Lincoln came along she was my little partner in crime. Trips to the library for books, cheesy tots and soda runs at Sonic, or that one time I tried to kick my soda habit only to replace it with a Smart Cookie habit, she was there. I think she has turned out pretty good so far.

Tavia, on the other hand, read books leading up to Ruby’s birth. Again, she is awesome. She asked me if I wanted to read them, I didn’t read them. I probably should have. One of those books was Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child. She would bring it up in our conversations as we would gaze into each other’s eyes talking about sleep strategies for our future children. Not so much with the gazing but it probably would have been a better conversation had I read the book.

Ruby came home and night 1 baby sleep training began. As much sleep training as you can do with a newborn. That first night Ruby slept in her crib in her own room. Ruby would get up Tavia would go feed her, burp her, change her lay her down for bed. Repeat. Ruby never spent a night in our bed or in our room.

Over the weeks and months after Ruby’s birth, Tavia would implement more and more from Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child. It was amazing to watch.

Ruby development the best sleeping routine I had ever seen for an infant. Into bed early, she would wake up to eat, and go right back to sleep. Every night. Night after night.

Eventually, she wouldn’t wake up at night to feed and our little baby slept from 6 or 7 at night until 6:30 the next morning. As she got older if we deviated from that routine it could mean a very grumpy Ruby. Which to be honest wasn’t all that grumpy.

As Lincoln, Audrey, and Afton have been added to the family the sleep routine has been the same. I love that book. Right now we have four children that frequently will be in bed by 7 pm during the school year and later during the summer for the older ones. When the routine is changed we know it can be a difficult day. We know the trade-off so any deviation in the routine needs to be worth it.

Frequently when people stop by our house our kids will be curious to see who it is and hound the door. In the evening when people stop by and don’t see kids they’ll frequently ask, “where are your kids?”