A Little Book to Welcome Spring...

Spring brings with it all kinds of good and wonderful things.

Easter.

Sunshine that actually warms a person.

Brighter skies.

Green shoots emerging from the ground,

the promise of a soft, lush meadow.

The tease of the early blooming daffodils

the beauty of the tulips, designed to take your breath away.

Soft showers, fresh breezes.

More time outside.

And, BABY ANIMALS.

Baby animals, all frisky and playful, what fun to watch a baby calf run toward its mother ready to play in the soft pasture. At times like that, you just don't want to be a grown-up, you want to run and jump, and play and maybe fly a kite, too. As moms, we can do that when we've got little ones around. But I don't have little ones any longer and I still don't want to grow up, especially in spring!

This is a little book I picked up as part of a set that I bought from a former preschool teacher last summer. They were bagged carefully in a ziploc, a set of nine very well-used and much loved RAND-MCNALLY TINY TOT books, all originally 29 cents in paperback: for fifty cents. I had thought I might list them on eBay, as they are mostly from the early seventies. But I can't do it.

Hopefully, these photos show you why the kid in me won't allow me to let them go. Are they cute, or what? Nostalgia at its best. Vintage children's paperbacks just call out to me!

I can just picture a chubby little toddler hand holding onto mom, sitting on her lap while she read, and for the first several pages, very alert, studying the pictures carefully. Her chubby little fingers would point out the duck when mom asked "Where's the duck?"

Soon, the little one would have heavy, sleepy eyes, ready for a nap on her bed in the quiet mid-afternoon sunshine. I can remember the gentle feeling of motherly satisfaction that I felt when my little one was soothed with a story, sleepy and ready for a good, soft rest--covered with a blanket grandma made --all the way up to her little face.

Oh, the love I felt when I looked down on that sweet, sleeping face, listening to the breathing, watching those eyelashes resting on a fat little toddler cheek, wishing that I could freeze time just for that moment. It's love at its purest.

So enjoy your babies, grandbabies, all the little ones that you can hold on your lap for such a little while for that sleepy-time story. Savor the sunshine filtering through the lace curtain as it warms your shoulder.

Life really is beautiful. That's why for years, it's been captured by artists and storytellers to share their view of it with all of us through the gift of books (even 29 cent ones)!

Hope you enjoyed your peek into this little book! The pictures still captivate me, even though I'm a big kid now. (Maybe I should have been a children's librarian.)

Have a great day while we wait for spring to arrive! (At least we have sunshine today, and it's feeling a little more insistent than it has been!)

If you'd like, leave a comment to tell me which picture in this book is your favorite. After studying them, I kind of like the mouse, (probably because of the tiny wild strawberries)!