Goodnight, Ben!

Goodnight Moon

This is my boys' current favorite bedtime story.  I love it, too, actually, and I think I enjoy it almost as much as they do!  It is simple, refreshing, and calming.  Which, of course, was the goal of the author -- to calm children down for sleeping.  It certainly works on me!  I'm ready for sleeping once I read this book.  But, of course, there is Ben, whose mind is ever active.  He has his own little quips he likes to contribute to our bedtime story.

Mom [reading]: "In the great green room there was a telephone and a red balloon and a picture of -- "

Ben: "Where is the telephone? Is it INSIDE the balloon?"

[brief discussion of the location of the telephone]

Mom [reading]:  "...The cow jumping over the moon...And there were three little bears sitting on chairs..."

Ben: "Goodnight, Bears!"

M: "...and two little kittens and a pair of mittens...and a little toy house and a young mouse..."

B: "Goodnight fire!" [he's looking at everything else on the page]

M: "...and a comb and a brush and a bowl full of mush..."

B:  "Goodnight lamp!  Hey - what is mush?"

[attempt at an explanation of mush] [read through several more pages]

M: "...Goodnight light and the red balloon...goodnight bears...goodnight chairs..."

B: "Goodnight window!"

M: "Goodnight kittens...Goodnight mittens..."

B: "But what are mittens?" [and how would an Arizona boy know what those are? I explain these foreign objects to him.]

M: "Goodnight clocks and goodnight socks..."

B: "Goodnight curtains!"

[we make it through several more pages...]

M: "Goodnight nobody..."

B: "Goodnight WHITE!" [the page is white, and blank besides the words printed on it - he is giggling, very pleased with himself]

[we read through some more pages]

M: "Goodnight stars...goodnight air..."

B: "Goodnight snow!" [giggling again...the picture is of snow and stars]

M: "Goodnight noises everywhere."

B: [looking around his bedroom] "Goodnight vent!  Goodnight water!  Goodnight CUP!" [laughing harder each time he says a new item]

Sam [who has been here the entire time, listening quietly]: "guh-nigh bye-purr!!" (translation: "Goodnight diaper!")

Oh, I love my boys.  They make every thing fun.

It takes several more minutes and some reading from the Bible to get them wound down enough to go to sleep.  Who knew Goodnight Moon could be so exciting?