Bedtime at Hoda Kotba’s house has gotten a little awkward.
On Monday in the episode Today with Hoda and JennaKotb told co-host Jenna Bush Hager about a nighttime routine with her youngest daughter, Hope, that started out with good intentions but quickly turned into a challenging situation for her.
“Hope has this thing where she likes ‘something special’ before she goes to sleep,” Kotb, 59, explained, according to Today.com. “She’s in bed, I leave, I go to my room. I literally rummage around, find an old bracelet. I say, here, something special.’ ”
Kotb told Hope, 4, then made the same request the next night, asking, “Can I have something special that I’ve never seen before?”
Bush Hager, 41, immediately picked up on the fact that what seemed like a cute mother-daughter bonding activity was actually a bit of a parenting nightmare.
“Oh, no. You’ve started a terrible thing. This is not good!” she replied before grabbing the items from the table that Kotb had given her daughter, including the gum and Hoda & Jenna cup.
By the way, I’m constantly chatting for ‘something special’, Hoda admitted with a laugh, continuing the story. “You know what I did? I took an old little toothy headphone case and slipped coins into it last night – coins and some old plastic ring. And I say, ‘Something special!’ ”
Hoda Kotb poses with daughters Haley and Hope.
Hoda Kotb/ Instagram
Bush Hager then asked her friend if she wished she had never started the ritual.
“Yeah! Yeah! Every night, it’s a lot of pressure,” Kotb admitted.
The former first daughter – who has three children of her own – commiserated, noting how the sweet trend she thinks will only happen once can continue to live on in her house.
“They’re the smartest kids – and manipulative,” she joked of daughters Milla, 10, and Poppy, 8, and son Hal, 4.
2 children Hode Kotba: Everything you need to know
After Kotb complained that she now spends every night “looking around the apartment” when it’s time for Hope to go to bed, Bush Hager suggested changing “something special” to a mantra she says only to Hope.
But Bush Hager quickly realized, “She’s going to want things.”
“I give her a million mantras,” answered Kotb with a sigh. “We do all these things. It doesn’t work. She wants to have something.”
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Bush Hager then pointed out that Kotba’s bedtime problems could potentially double when her older daughter Haley, 6, learns that her sister gets a new treasure from their mom every night.
“I know, because she says, ‘Why did Hope get something?’ And not just anything — ‘something I’ve never seen before,’ Kotb said.
Bush Hager’s last piece of advice for a colleague? Turn everything he can find into “something special”.
“Just go into any of your drawers and they’re bottomless pits full of paper clips, hummus and stale crisps, all of which can be special if you make it special,” she declared.
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Hoda Kotb poses with daughters Haley (right) and Hope (left). Hoda Kotb/Instagram Hoda Kotb brings daughter Hope, 4, on stage at her high school’s 60th birthday celebration — check out the sweet moment!
While Hope coaxes her mom into stressing over their sleep routine, the little girl recently supported Kotb at a special event. Last week, the TV star was invited to speak at his high school’s 60th anniversary celebration.
She told Bush Hager during the Oct. 4 episode of their show that she told an audience at her alma mater about “one of the best calls I’ve ever gotten” when she found out she was going to adopt Hope. “The woman on the other end at the adoption agency said, ‘She’s here.’ And I thought, ‘She’s here,'” Kotb said.
At that moment, her daughter ran to the stage to cuddle with her mom. “So when I was at my reunion, I said, ‘She’s here, too.’ Little Hope came buzzing on stage, fearless, in my old high school cheerleader,” she shared. “It was one of those amazing ‘pinch me’ moments.”
Categories: Trends
Source: HIS Education