I've stopped speaking to my daughters...

 This picture sort of captures the Crazy that seizes us all at night.  Even though I don't remember bedtime rituals from my childhood, other than falling asleep in front of the TV and sometimes being carried to bed, I imagine that bedtimes should be sweet.  There should be stories.  There should be baths.  There should be kisses.  There should be prayers.
  Ever since I've had 3 children, I have memories of bedtime being really stressful.  I could read bedtime stories to 1 small child with a baby that didn't care.  But when I have kids begging for stories and then they don't pay attention, that bothers me.
  M and P take the brunt of my frustration.  They want "cuddles" which are more often more like siting on me and jabbing me with their knees and elbows.  That just sets us up for me getting head butted in the face and storming off.  Poor girls.  Their nightly ritual involves being told that they are intolerable, and that their desires for affection are more than I can bear.
  We visited G-ville where bedtimes are worse because I can't really get away from them as easily, and they have less freedom to hang out etc...  I felt embarrassed for yelling at them, and L could hear.  So the next night I decided to only interact with them in sign. 
  Something amazing happens when I sign to the kids.  They sign back and whisper.  Also, if I want to scold them in ASL, I only know 1 or 2 ways to phrase my criticisms.  So it is very obvious that I've already said that, and don't need to keep saying it.  That doesn't occur to me as readily in English.
  So we're on night 3 of this.  I've also added a story time for each of them, out of the room.  The ration is 1 child and 1 baby who doesn't care.  Back to the manageable ratio for me.