About those Checkmarks...

You are faithful readers, following up in so many ways to ask about the success of our new routine, Check Marks the Spot.  Here's the scoop.

The first couple of nights, Tyler wandered down to my room to say, "Where is my checkmark?  You said there would be one."  In the darkness of my room, I traced the one I had drawn on his hand hours before.  "Oh.  There it is.  Silly me. I couldn't see it.  Good night, Mommy."

Tucker likes to wake up a little, and then he closes his eyes and pretends he didn't wake up at all, except for the hand he slowly peeks from underneath his blanket.  He shoves it out to me, and then he says, "Thanks, Mom."

They have each woken up with wayward ink on their faces, a ditto of the checkmark on their hands.

Tyler is still displeased to sleep in his own bed, and he reminds me a few times each night that he really doesn't like that plan.  That's fine; he doesn't have to love it.  He found his way to my bed three times last night.  But he says 'someone else brought him there.  Can you believe someone else would do that, Mommy?'

I have also dimmed some of those nightlights to hopefully engage their biological clocks.  Full brightness at night can help with fear of shadows, but it also breeds nocturnal habits.  They are sleeping better and longer, and thereby so am I. 

The best benefit: they're no longer afraid.  That's the win and what I wanted more than anything.