ritual

So, whenever I have my son there is a long ritual around going to bed. At the very end I place him in his crib, he places his head on his pillow, grabs hold of tuppy -- a stuffed wolf about three quarters his size -- and, importantly, he gets tucked in. If, say, it's hot and I try to skip this step, he asks for it. These days I use a lighter blanket, though there is a slightly heavier one in the crib for use should it get suddenly colder.

So, tonight I went to check on him about an hour after I put him down, and found his heavier blanket carefully placed to cover his pillow, then tuppy on top of the heavy blanket, carefully tucked in with the lighter one. Rowan himself is sleeping without blanket or pillow a few inches away.

This is the second night in a row this has happened.

This raises some questions. Normally, Rowan is the sort of kid who just closes his eyes and drifts off. So did something wake him, or does he lie in bed quietly, wait for me to leave, and then get up to rearrange his bed? If he wanted me to tuck in tuppy, he would certainly ask me to. That's the kind of kid he is. So I'm left to assume that it's somehow important that _he_ tuck tuppy in, and it is important that I tuck him in, even though he's going to undue it a moment later.

So then, is the closing of the bed time ritual something that he goes through for my benefit, or that I go through for his? Each go through for each other's benefit? our own?

so, you realize that wolves have fur, right?
oh, ok.
I was just checking.