Noisy

I like it quiet at bedtime. I like to wash my face, brush my teeth and crawl between the nice cool sheets to read a book or work on a sudoku puzzle. I want to unwind and talk about the day and cuddle. I want to look at Ben's face, instead of the back of his head at a computer monitor. I want to be companionable.

I am constantly aware of how much noise is going on in the house after the kids are in bed, sleeping. If we watch an action movie it's like the remote is the baton in a relay race...constantly changing hands. Loud gunshot. Michelle turns down the volume. Whispered conversation. Ben turns up the volume. My children have grown up in a noisy home. They sleep through anything, so I don't know what I'm so worried about. It just bugs me. I can't help it.

I married into a "tv in every room" family. They watch tv while they are preparing to teach a Bible Study. They watch tv while they cook. They watch tv in bed, while they are falling asleep. Now, when I say "watch" that's not really accurate. It's more like background noise. This is weird to me. So, we have a laptop at the end of our bed and Ben's nightly routine includes picking out a movie to fall asleep to. We go through movie cycles. Usually they are kids' movies. He'll go through a Nick Park phase when he chooses Chicken Run or Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit. Or Night at the Museum with Ben Stiller. Sometimes it will be an action movie like Rush Hour with Jackie Chan. Lord of the Rings is the series he chooses if he's got a migraine headache. Or Harry Potter.

An additional piece of this noisy routine includes a bowl of cereal that he brings to bed with him. (I could write a whole post on the fact that Ben doesn't know how to eat a meal in the kitchen, or in fact a whole post on his eating habits in general.) He takes this huge spoonful, loaded down with cereal and milk and slurps all the milk before he sucks the cereal off the spoon. Then he chews. And it's crunchy and then it's mushy. So, it's kind of like this, "scoop, slurp, crunch, mush, swallow". And when he's finished with the cereal he slurps the milk out of the bowl, making sure that none of it slips off the rim and down the side. I hate mouth noises.

He also chews on the crushed ice that he brings to bed with him. This is a relatively new part of the routine. And it's not just a little kid cup of ice, plastic and harmless. It's a tall glass tumbler that he taps and shakes to loosen things up. And then there's more slurping. And crunching. Curse that new refrigerator with the crushed ice option.

But at the risk of sounding completely sappy...it's worth it. We go to bed together. He gives me first dibs on which movie to pick. When he goes down for his cereal he asks if he can bring anything back for me. A snack? A glass of water? And when he's crunching on his ice he's also rubbing my head...long after he's obligated. He's a good man, with a few idiosyncrasies. And I'm 100% ok with that.