My mom sang it to us when we were little.  That and a few other classics that I can’t remember the words or the tunes to.  So, I stick to “Edelweiss”.  As it is, it’s all I can do to get through that without sounding terrible.  But, you know what?  Robbie loves it.  He asks for it every night after we read stories.

In fact, it’s even a little better than that.  He crawls up into my lap and asks to cuddle like a baby.  I know I probably shouldn’t indulge baby stuff like that, but he never wanted to cuddle when he was a baby.  Robbie just wanted to be a big boy.  Given all the bedtime trouble we’ve had over the past few months, I grab onto the opportunity with both hands.

So, up he climbs, curling into me, and gazing up into my face, whispering, “Sing ‘Edelweiss’, please, Mom.”  We sit and rock and sing.  Robbie closes his eyes, and I can feel him relax into me.  Sometimes he asks to move into our bed to go to sleep because he likes the big bed (after all, who needs a toddler bed when you’re almost three?).

At first, he wanted to cuddle all the time.  Now, he just wants a round or two of “Edelweiss” and enough space to get comfortable.  So it looks like we might have found the great compromise for bedtime.  A little cuddling.  A little song.  And a little more bed.