Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Good-night traditions

I remember when I was little, my dad would always tuck us in. When he gave us our good night kiss he would teasingly rub his whiskers on our cheeks. I think the risk, and danger of possibly getting hurt, by whisker burn added to the thrill. I also remember Eskimo kisses, rubbing noses, and butterfly kisses, when you hold someone's hand up to your eye and blink so they feel butterfly wings in their palm.
When Ariel was really little she had to have a kiss from both of us on her forehead, nose, and each cheek, and she did likewise. It was our tradition. Now when we tuck the kids in, they each get a kiss, one from both of us if they are lucky, and on a really good night they get a "scary kiss," their favorite. That is when I hold my hands in front of my nose palm to palm while still standing then fall toward the child, my hands aimed directly at their nose, until almost reaching it at which point my hands part to catch me on either side of their pillow so my head is hovering above their's at which point I give them a gentle kiss on the forehead. Thrilling.
For some reason this evening I remembered the Eskimo kisses and butterfly kisses and Adriana and Annika loved them, maybe it will be a new tradition.

7 comments:

Lara Neves said...

The scary kisses sound very fun! And scary! :)

Heidi said...

Ooh, I'll have to add the scary kiss to my repotoire. I do the eskimo kiss and the butterfly kiss (on the cheek--they love it!) and the mommy kiss which is on the lips (but only when they are really little--I love kissing my babies on the mouth. Put me in jail if you hafta!) and a few others that I have forgotten b/c my kids are getting too old for that kind of thing. sigh . ..

Karen Mello Burton said...

My husband has done the tuck ins for years because he loves to have some time with the boys to talk and visit. But this makes me want to go downstairs right now and give them each a smooch!

Erin said...

Love the traditions! We do Eskimo kisses and normal kisses on the cheek. The girls have to kiss us each back too. It's so nice. Campbell usually has to wrap her arms around you and hug your head really tight while she gives you a kiss and trying to get her off of you is the game.

LisAway said...

Nighttime kisses are the best. We have always held our babies up so their head is in between ours and we count to three and kiss them at the same time each of us on a different cheek. Then we repeat, counting to three in Polish and one other way. They love it an it really means "Good night!" to them.

Anonymous said...

So sweet! :)

Cookie said...

thanks for reminding me of those wonderful butterfly and Eskimo kisses. we all love those over here. My husband's favorite is the honking kiss. Kinda like your scary one.