Going to sleep all by herself

We have finally reached an important milestone in our house. This is the third consecutive night that Nora has gone to sleep by herself.

The bedtime routine around here has been quite complex for the past several months. Roles were divided up between April and I. There was the "reader" (usually me), who was responsible for reading Nora's bedtime stories to her, and then the "sleeper" (usually April), who would sit in the beanbag next to her bed and read a magazine until she fell asleep. On certain nights when she was feeling particularly gregarious, Nora would chat April up until well after 9:00...at which point April would come out into the living room and designate me the "Backup Sleeper".

With April's impending return to school, we knew we had to put this to an end. Previous attempts to do this had met with spectacular failure so I must admit I was not optimistic at first. But tonight, I think we have finally made a breakthrough. I only hope that by writing this I am not going to jinx it.