Max's brain

Max's brain is fantastic. Recently he's devised a new procedure for bedtime that includes a lullaby he developed and a set of rituals for the passing of the bottle of milk that would make a NASA flight procedure manual read like a Dick and Jane grade school primer.

The lullaby is to be sung to some German nursery tune that Rob and I can never actually name but goes kinda like this....dum dum da dum da dum da dum da dum. Something is lost via the internet. Like the tune. But I'll venture forth anyway. The words to said lullaby go like this, (and CANNOT under any circumstances be deviated from)...

Sleep Maxi Sleep

Your bottle of milk won't make you vomit

Your Daddy loves you very much

Your Mommy loves you very much

Zella loves you very much

Your bottle won't make you vomit

After the singing of the lullaby then the passing of the actual bottle (that won't make him vomit) must be performed. The conversation usually goes like this and no I'm not making this up.

Max: Dada you give it to Mum. Mum will hand it to me.

Dad: Give it to Mum like this?

Max: Yes. Go.

Mum: (upon receiving the bottle) Here you go Maxi.

Max: NO NO NO. You STUPID people. (Okay I made that one up, but his tone is saying it nonetheless) Mum, you give it back to Dad. Dad you put it on the BLUE table. Give it to me when Mum gets me in the bed.

Dad: What blue table??

Mum: Do you mean the orange table Maxi?

Max: No the blue table what has the hammer under it.

Zella: (sticking her head in the door, waiting for her own bedtime ritual to begin) Could we please make this process go a little faster???

Yes, this is the conversation we have with our 2 and half year old son and our 5 year old daughter. This has nothing to do with living in Panama, of course. But won't this ritual be all the more rich and nuanced when our children are barking directions at us in Spanish?