Mama First!

I just have to start by saying how excited I am to be reading these books, thinking about these things, and working on this project! Right now there aren't enough hours in the day to devote to it as I would like. I sneak in a chapter from "Should We Burn Babar" by Herbert Kohl while nursing my babies down for their nap. I furiously underline text and scribble in the margins of 'The Child and the Book" by Nicholas Tucker while stealing a few extra minutes of private time in the loo. (It's sad but true. If you are a parent, you know what I mean!)


I have so many books that keep getting added to the queue, both books of critique and picture books, that it is looking like this three month project may stretch into six months. I am even lining up books, and writing down ideas for the future projects that will emerge from the work I am doing now.


I am so compelled to do this research, have this dialogue, to create resources for parents and books for kids. And then I have to take a deep breath and know that doing fifteen minute chunks of work thirty times a day is how it is going to be right now because my amazing, beautiful, full-time gig is being Mama to these two clever little imps. That giving them (giving all kids) the respect and attention they deserve is one of the overarching messages of my larger project.


So I am going to read and write and blog and discuss, scour the internet, mine the kids book area at the library and the bookstore. I am going to figure out how to do it all in energetic bursts so that dinner still gets cooked, bills get paid, and two curious, talkative toddlers get the most present, loving Mama I can be.