Tonight, Claire volunteered to put Molly to sleep.  Claire was not just talking about reading a book to Molly and tucking her in.  Claire insisted that she would help get Molly completely ready for bed: get her dressed in her night gown, help her brush her teeth, read her a story, etc.  Claire said that way I could go work while she took care of Molly.  (I am always trying to find time to get things done around here, and Claire has picked up on this.)

Molly loved the idea.  Claire and Molly were a good team.  Bedtime went surprisingly well.  It only took a little bit of prodding to keep them on track.  And I actually did get some work done while Claire took care of Molly, which meant I was not up quite as late working.  Thank you, Claire!

The next night, Claire volunteered to put Molly down again.  It was a bath night, which is much trickier.  But Claire insisted.  That night did not go quite as well as the previous night.  After 45 minutes, they were both still in the bath, and Molly was really worked up, jumping, giggling, laughing, etc.  This is pretty normal for bedtime, but it was one notch even more than usual.  Eventually the screams of joy from down the hall got to be too much to take; I was not getting any work done that night.  I had to go in and break it up.  Kit and I split up the kids and got things nearly back on track.  The girls were nearly in a frenzy.  How many times have I said it… bath nights are tricky!

Claire did not volunteer to put Molly to bed the next night.