My folkbaby Katarina is a folkchild now with a babysib. They are with us for some childcare while their father heals from foot surgery, and their mother works.

Something really interesting happened last night. Katarina loves books so much she would almost rather be read to than anything else. She knows where the book stash is, too, here, where all our kids' abandoned books await new little readers. But yesterday she discovered block building, and the books were untouched. Then last night she picked up a booklet lying by my chair, and made it clear that reading time had arrived.

Well, it was a songbook I had left lying around, in a pile of others, as I had been looking for some new church tunes to try.... and so I explained to her that this was a different kind of book, a SONG book.... and it would not have any pictures, and I would not read it to her but we would do something else with it. She climbed up into my lap, puzzled, but expecting something-- because, after all, something interesting is usually happening at our house!

I proceeded to sing her all the songs I knew in the book. She has some speech problems, so I think I know why she sat with her eyes inches from my mouth, watching intently as I slowly formed the words and sang them to her.

Then when we were done I bundled her and babysib up to take them home. In the car she burbled about all we had done that day and then fell silent. A few miles down the road, from the silence, came this:

"Shushee?"

"Yes honey."

"I wan' talk to you, Shushee."

"OK, I'm listening."

There was a long silence. Then, heartfelt, "Shushee, I love your home."

WOW!!!!!

I told her of course that we love having her visit, too.

What a concept! Children demanding bedtime songbooks!

Tuck a few songbooks in with your bedtime books and see what happens!

~Susan