We did about five of the Winter Fairy poems before Nicholas woke up. It was a good thing, actually, because my voice was going fast. Jonathan sat and read more poems to himself for about another 1/2 hour.

After Nicholas had nursed and was awake-awake, he and I read several board books that he brought me. I keep his favorites in a basket in the living room and the rest are in the bedroom on a small bookshelf that's just his size. The bigger boys have their books on the three lowest shelves of two of our big bookcases and Nicholas has access to those, too, but he seems to understand that the board books are his.

Benjamen and I ended up reading a number book that he brought to me, too, before 5 o'clock (time for Cyberchase!) rolled around. I usually cook dinner while they're watching, but today I barely got it started when Nicholas wanted to nurse some more. So I stopped dinner and we sat down and nursed for a good long time. I had everything ready to cook by the time Dan got home, shortly after 6 o'clock, and he played with the boys while I finished dinner.

At bedtime, I nursed Nicholas while Dan told them a pretty interesting version of Peter Rabbit that I had never heard before. He flipped through one of the little story books my mother had bought the boys, which isn't the Beatrix Potter version (neither the words nor the illustrations are as good) and made up his own story as he went. In Dan's version, the three bunnies aren't named Flopsy, Mopsy, and Cottontail, but Jonathan Peter, Benjamen David, and Nicholas Jacob. Jonathan Peter turned out to be the naughty bunny (of course) who didn't listen to his mother and go play at the playground. Instead he went to 7-11 and filled up on donuts and candy bars. A "bad guy" started chasing after him with a mop because he hadn't paid yet. Poor Jonathan lost his shoes and his shirt in the mad dash to run away. Another guy tried to show him the way out, but Jonathan couldn't understand him because the guy's mouth was full of Slurpee (the boys cackled madly at Papa's garbled Slurpee-talk). Jonathan Peter finally got away, of course, but the man sold his clothes, and in order to keep away other little children, put up a sign that said "No Shirt, No Shoes, No Service" in order to confuse them all (Jonathan could never puzzle out that sign). Jonathan went home with a tummy ache, wishing he had listened to his mother and been a good little bunny like his two little brothers. Mama made him some tear-water tea, though, and it settled his tummy.

My husband is beyond bizarre.