“Children are made readers on the laps of their parents”
-Emilie Buchwald
“and their grandparents.” -Janice Ferguson
Don’t you love reading to children before they go to bed? They are clean and sweet smelling and, usually, a little quieter and sweeter than earlier in the day.
My grandchildren love story time. Even when they are not spending the night with us, they often are bathed and jammied up, ready to read books before the trek home.
It didn’t take me long to realize that I could not balance two babies and a big story book on my lap and still turn the pages. So I decided a stool would be a good solution. After finding a sturdy 4-legged stool, I stacked a round piece of foam and a layer of batting on top. To match the other nursery accessories, blue gingham check covered the top.
I spent way too much time looking for an appropriate design. I knew exactly what I wanted but just could not find it in my design library. As is always my last resort, Embroidery Library was where I found the perfect design. www.emblibrary.com  Since then, I have found a similar and equally appropriate one in Bernina’s Hush Baby Bear collection.
When Laurel was born, I pulled out the boxes of children’s books that I had saved from days gone by when her father and Aunt Rebecca were still being read to. I kept only their favorites, but still they fill two shelves  in the nursery closet. Their favorites, however, are kept in an old magazine rack beside my rocking chair.
As I had expected, the timeless works of Shel Silverstein’s Beyond the Sidewalk, Gyo Fujikawa’s Oh, What a Busy Day!, Tasha Tudor’s A Time to Keep, Dr. Suess’ Marvin K. Mooney (which was read so often that I learned to recite by heart in1976 and still can), Circus McGurkus, etc. still work their charm 30+ years later. Personally, I never understood the charm of Maurice Sendak’s Mickey in the Night Kitchen, but Robert and Laurel love as much as did the previous generation of Fergusons.
When you were up until the wee hours of Easter Sunday morning, finishing your children’s Easter outfits, did you ever wonder how many other mothers were doing the same thing at the same time? Sometimes, when I am reading to my grandchildren, I wonder how many other grandmothers are doing the same thing.
