"Mommy, cakap Kekesh mimpi yang indah-indah,"...

That's what Marrakesh insisted I tell him before he went to bed finally last night... :)

And so I did. I repeated the whole "Nite nite baby, sleep tight, sweet dreams, I love you..." and I added, "mimpi yang indah-indah...mimpi Handy Manny, Bob The Builder, Dibo, Elmo, semua datang and sing all their funs songs with you darling...no bad dreams, just sweet, sweet dreams." And he adds, "and mimpi bear bear...". Bear bear is his favourite soft toy, white teady bear with a graduation hat, which his older brothers always hide from him, until he cries and whines for it, and the abang-abang will laugh and tease before they give it back to him. Then he tucked himself into bed again and fell asleep.

It's been difficult to make him remain in his own bed till sunrise; somehow he would find his way to my room in the wee morning and tucks himself right smack between mommy and ayah, saying, "Kekesh pegi pee pee pas tu nak tido ngan mommy sebab katil Kekesh rasa tak sedap la...". He's been doing it for a while, until after we saw "Magika". Thank you "Magika"!

Now I tell him that if he sleeps with mommy and ayah, the "Orang Minyak" will find him because "Orang Minyak" looks for children who sleep with their parents. And if he (Marrakesh) cries, then "Nenek Kebayan" will find him and keep him because she'd want to collect his tears...

Some folks may find this a bit drastic and traumatic, but so far it's worked well with Marrakesh. All because the whole thing about "Magika" was actually very funny and cute, not scary and dark; all 3 boys took a liking to the movie. And of course when I tell all this to Marrakesh, I do it in a sing song way, like story telling, not in a threatening manner. And both mommy and ayah would tell him that if he sleeps well in his bed till morning, he'll grow up stronger and braver and will be the champion of many things... :)

So, on top of mommy's regular goodnight hugs, kisses and mantra, I add that special "mimpi yang indah-indah...." especially for my little buncit Kekesh :) Ayah would just say "Hey, bedtime boys, upstairs now, no more nonsense!" Hehe, the macho ayah. But then in his own manja way, he'd let the boys choose the book of the night and read to them, and say Bismillah before finally saying goodnight, sometimes he would let each boy choose his own book... :)

But only mommy can promise "mimpi yang indah-indah..." :)