All the books tell you that to get infants / toddlers to go to sleep on their own at night is to develop some sort of structured routine and then repeat that routine every night. Eventually, they get used to how everything works and they know at the end of the routine, they end up in bed. Then it's night-night time.

Every night, we have the same routine here at the Kirk household that works like a charm for Mackenzie...

PJs - After chasing down Mackenzie, it's time to get undressed and put on pajamas.

Teeth brushing - Mackenzie actually likes this. I only get in a couple of strokes in between me having to say, "Aaahhhh," like at the doctor so she'll open her mouth back up after she bites down on the brush.

Book time - Mackenzie gets to pick out a book if she wants, and we sit on the floor and read it. I prefer short books, while she prefers all of the books that I hate. Perfect.

Night-Night kisses - I say, "Time to give Mommy kisses," and she tries to stall as long as possible before giving Emily her kiss good night. That sets of the chain of everyone / everything getting their kiss. Usually Delaney gets the next one before Matty (reluctantly) gets his. Then mine comes next followed by Delaney's swing getting kissed on the seat. Then it's the bouncy chair's turn, followed by the rocking horse. Other inanimate objects sometime make the rotation, but Emily and I look forward every night to see what is going to make the cut.

Gathering of the friends - Mackenzie sleeps with stuffed animals. Not A stuffed animal - stuffed ANIMALS. I ask, "Who do you want to take to bed with you?" and then she starts naming off animals - almost like she's picking a dodgeball team. "Buddy (the dog). Waddie (horse). DoDo (Dorothy the dinosaur). Duder (Joey - don't ask)." The list changes every night. Then we gather them all up and cram them all into her tiny little arms and march upstairs.

The lighting of the Moon - Mackenzie has a book with a moon on the cover that lights up when you push it. After laying her in the crib, I light the moon, get all of her animals up where she can see them, and pull her blanket up. We exchange a "night-night," and then I leave the room.

That's it. That's the routine. We've got it down where we can do it in less than 5 minutes, and we rarely get any resistance after the initial "chase down." I hate to give "the experts" too much credit, but they really nailed how to get a kid to sleep. Now if we can just get Delaney to follow suit...

From the Peanut Gallery...

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