we've got a good selection of children's books, but we're starting to run out of new stories, so i'm trying to institute a weekly trip to the library. last friday the three of us walked up and got seven books—one for each night of the week. we picked a few old favorites (caps for sale, where the wild things are) and a bunch of stories that were new to us. my favorite of the new-to-us titles so far has been pirates don't change diapers. it had fun illustrations and the story was cute. mike's become our bedtime reader. it was his idea to have a matinee book, a feature presentation, and an encore. the matinee is always the feature from the previous night, the feature is a new book, and then the encore is always goodnight moon. sometimes when sam has already dozed off, we still read the stories because we want to hear them. it's a lot of fun.
i'm also compiling a list of books to look for at the library. on the list now:
- the fantastic mr. wani by kanako usui
- mr. grumpy's outing by john burningham
- fairy tales by berlie doherty
- there's a nightmare in my closet by mercer mayer
if you've got a favorite book from your bedtime routine, let me know. i'm always looking for suggestions!






yesterday afternoon we attended abby's first birthday bash. it's amazing how big she's gotten. we had a great time watching the birthday girl open gifts and play with her balloons, but the highlight was definitely the cake eating portion of the party. i don't know how much cake she really ate, but she sure seemed to have fun with it. happy birthday abby! and thanks for letting us celebrate with you!





