One Book, Then Night Night

No more rocking the baby to sleep, although sometimes he will now ask to rock and "sing song," and often request the song he wants to sing, and usually sing along.

No more tiptoeing up the stairs carrying a swaddled baby as carefully as a wrapped bundle of dynamite, for fear of explosion when peace is so desperately needed, although sometimes I still carry Ryder in feeted pajamas up the stairs, even though he can walk up them on his own.

No more laying the baby down to hear him crying all alone in his big room while I listen and then worry when he stops crying that something is wrong, although sometimes when I lay him down, I will sit and listen to his night time conversations via the baby monitor.

Now, my most favorite night time ritual of all, in Ryder's words, is "One book, then night night." But Ryder knows his momma, and he knows that "one book" can easily turn into several because as long as he's sitting in my lap, finishing the lines, and asking for another book to be read, his momma is going to read to him. And no matter how late it is, how many books we have already read, or how tired momma is, Ryder knows I can't refuse reading my favorite book to him, and he will ask "Read 'Llama, Llama' Momma?" And then Ryder gets two kisses from his momma before saying prayers and going to sleep.

Ryder's current favorites:
Llama, Llama Red Pajama by Anna Dewdney
Green Eggs and Ham (he calls this one Sam :) By Dr. Seuss
Great Day for UP by Dr. Seuss
Cool Time Song by Carole Lexa Schaefer
I Love You, Stinky Face by Lisa McCourt
Good Night, Sweet Butterflies
Good Night, Gorilla by Peggy Rathmann
Doggies by Sandra Boynton

Books, to the reading child,are so much more than books--they are dreams and knowledge, they are a future and a past.
-Esther Maynell 1940

Happy is he who has laid up in his youth, and held fast in all fortune, a genuine and passionate love of reading.
-Rufus Choate