The LeBaron Family: Books and the Bedtime Routine

There are two things I will break the budget for (ok maybe there are more) but for the sake of this post there are two.

Books and games.

I was raised by a school teacher and in a house of avid readers. To this day my parents have stacks of books around their house. As do I. My nightstand is always a hodgepodge of books I am in the middle of.

And so - it only follows that my children have become/are becoming avid readers.

Willsie my love - this is our nighttime routine as of these days:

1) Bathtime. You might have already taken one early that morning but you still love multiple baths a day.

2) Pajamas - your dad believes pajamas are for the birds - but again I was raised by a mother who woke us up (no joke!) if we fell asleep out and about - to put on pajamas as she believes you sleep better in them. So do I.

1 for mom & 0 for daddy.

3) A bit o play time with your dad and siblings.

4) I finally wrangle you into the bedroom with a bottle (we are currently phasing this out!)

5) We sit in the rocking chair and you pick out some books. If I'm feeling peppy we do 5-7. If I am feeling tired we do 2-3.

6) Here are your current favorites........

This is such a sweet book. It's a poem - about 100 words - about why these children love their grandma. You ask for this one over and over. Which makes sense as you are BFFs with your Grammy.

It starts out "My Grandma and I are the greatest of friends. We play hide and seek and games of pretend..." I love it too. My other kids didn't seem to like it much - but it's here to stay now!

I just picked this one up a few weeks ago. Guinea pig feeding was one of your favorite parts of the day earlier this year. Daddy would come home, scoop you up and you guys would grab some lettuce (my good lettuce no less! humph!) and carrots and go outside. And you would both say "Hi Guineaaaaa!!!!" This was actually your first sentence way back when. Anyway - poor guinea died. And since I knew you loved him I thought you might like this book too.

You do.

It has super cute illustrations and is the story of two guineas who escape and their adventures around the house. Any book that has the word "scamper" in it is ok with me!

This page and the next are your favorites. We might spend 2 minutes on these as you baby chatter non stop about what's happening on these pages.

This book is such a pleasure moment for me in my mommyhood. This was the first book Lucas laughed out loud to. It's charming, short, and funny.

It's about a red-headed zookeeper who is putting all his animals to sleep, but the gorilla is secretly letting them all out right after.

They follow him into his house and hunker down for the night. The wife thinks she's saying goodnight to her husband only...

... all the animals tell her goodnight in response. This starts the chuckles from you, dear boy.

And then the two eyeballs wide open makes you go berserk. You love this part.

And this is a good page too. She's shocked! And the gorilla is sheepish. We both make the chuckle we think the gorilla would do here. It's good times. :) And it doesn't get old. As a cute side note there is a balloon on every page but one I believe. It gets smaller and smaller in the sky as the story progresses. This is something I just learned a few months ago. You LOVE to point to it on each page.

This author Sandra Boynton - writes awesome books. They're all good.

Dearest Dr. Seuss always saves the day but this one in particular is a favorite of yours Willsie. As you pull it out you will hum the tune of the way I sing/read the book. You have always been really amazing with sounds and tunes this way.

My musical reading is apparently something you like a lot. This page in particular you will flip back to again and again.

I love this book. You love this book. Just the intro "A Pudgy Book..." gets me right there.

When we started reading this cute one months ago I could NOT wing the words. You used to be very anti singing. Especially nursery rhymes. They would either make you cry or you would make this odd face. But we have now grown and I can sing it. Yay!!

I was raised in a house by a mother who sings continually. No hymns or gospel or folk songs - but she will break out into an Oldie Song usually and all it takes is a little word that reminds her of the lyrics. I'm the same way. I love singing you this book. When we pull it off the shelf you say "beep beep beep!" and do the little baby hand motions with your fat little arms and you do a little dance to it too. It's precious and I want to remember it forever.

Who doesn't have this in their library? Classic! And it's seen better days, I say this proudly.

I can recite this book by heart as many mothers can boast. A cute side note is the mouse is fun to find on every page as he's in a different spot. We love to do this.

You just got this book from your BFF Owen for your birthday. I made the huge mistake of introducing it at bedtime. You spent 77 minutes going through it shouting with excitement. Well not quite but you might of had I not insisted we switch to an old favorite to make things more mellow. Note to self: Do not introduce new books at bedtime - it's the opposite of soothing and relaxing.