First is Rachel's Prayer. She lies in bed and I have to kneel down with my head on her tummy and listen to her prayer. I love to hear her pray. She hardly ever prays for herself- it's always about those around her. She is thankful for the little things. Things like going to Gymnastics or piano - Sometimes it's my first idea of what she did that day. After she says her prayers, sometimes she says "was that a good prayer daddy?" I always say yes, because I'm sure that Heavenly Father loves to hear them as much as I do. After her prayer, it's a good time to say my prayers since I'm kneeling there anyway. She uses her fingernails and scatches my head while I pray. Sometimes she intertupts my prayer to tell me something about her day and that's fine. After my prayers I have to tuck in her covers and it's important to say "tuck, tuck, tuck" as I do it. Then it's kisses and I have to whisper "Daddy loves you" in her ear. Any small variation in this part of the ritual will result in an immediate "Daddy…" until I do it right. The final part has developed in the last month or so. I did it once and now it has become of the ritual. As I leave the room she says "I love you Daddy" and my response is "Love you more".
There are some nights when I'm not home in time for tuck tucks with her. On those nights, I still give her tuck tucks and whisper "Daddy loves you" in her ear. Just so she knows that I didn't forget about her on those nights, we have developed our own special little game. She has to look around when she wakes up and find something a little out of place. Tonight it was Coyote rides Piggy, the night before Piggy was off of her shelf above her bed-wearing her bracelet for a necklace. The next day, usually when I kiss her goodbye in the morning, I ask her "Did you get tuck tucks last night?" She gets a big smile and usually giggles a little and says "yeah…" and I ask "How do you know? Do you remember? She says "no, you took down my piggy and put my bracelet around it's neck".
This is one of the favorite parts of my day. I've had similar rituals with the other kids growing up. With Jared each night I had to make up a nightly adventure of a boy named Jared and his brown horse named "Chocolate". The one thing that they have had in common was we always ended with "tuck, tuck tuck…Daddy loves you." Amanda is 24 now and she still gets tuck tucks occasionally when she's staying over. I've told Lisa before to just put these words on my tomb stone when I'm gone. "Tuck, Tuck, Tuck, Welove you too Daddy."
Coyote Rides Piggy
Barbie needs a shave... Rachel knew Daddy had given her tuck tucks this morning!
