Robert Louis Stevenson pays us a visit

This morning, Beck woke up and tapped me on the shoulder. I rubbed the sleep out of my eyes as he said "Mommy, I have to tell you something!" I mumbled something akin to "uh-huh?" and he said:

"A birdie with a yellow bill

Hopped upon the window sill

Cocked his shining eye and said:

(At which point Beck also attempted to wink, which he hasn't quite mastered yet...)

Ain't you 'shamed, you sleepy head?"

Robert Louis Stevenson

Beck and Caden's Nana and Grandpa sent them home from Thanksgiving dinner yesterday with two wonderful books of poems and some financial incentive to memorize them (fifty cents for short poems, $1 for longer poems, etc.)

But that Beck Sosa, he's not in it for the money! (Although Caden sure is... he wants all the cash without having to learn the poems... we're working on that...)

As it turns out memorizing poems is the key to solving another little problem we've been having at bedtime of late! Beck has had some trouble going to bed - afraid he'll have bad dreams and the like.



Wouldn't you know, saying a poem over and over again to yourself as you fall asleep makes it so you don' t have time to think about being scared anymore!