Ramona

As much as I have adored my children as babies, toddlers, and preschoolers . . . I have to say how much I have enjoyed Emmy as a book-reading, six-almost-seven-year-old.   During the last several months, Emmy and I have been reading the Ramona books together.  We find a few stolen minutes and we snuggle up in my bed and I read to her while she follows along.  I enjoyed these books as a child, but I have enjoyed them even more as a grown-up, reading them to my child.

Today we finished Ramona and Her Mother and we we could not stop laughing.  I literally could not read because I was laughing so hard.  In this picture, Ramona is sitting in the school nurse's office with a thermometer in her mouth.  She is looking a bit puffy because the day before her mother gave her a brand new pair of pajamas (not Beezus' hand-me-downs!).  Ramona loves her new PJs so much that she decides to wear them under her clothes.  So all day at school, she is completely hot and miserable.  Her teacher notices her pink cheeks and thinks she is sick, so she sends her to the office to have her temperature taken.  My summary of this incident does not do the story justice!

This is just one snippet of the many funny and heartwarming moments in Ramona's life. We have sorrowed with her when she comes to the conclusion that her Kindergarten teacher does not love her, we have enjoyed the feeling of splashing in puddles with her and her horror when she gets stuck in the mud, and we have felt her joy when she realizes that her father recognizes her in the church Nativity play.  We have laughed, I have cried (hard, on several occasions), and we have looked forward to these special times together. I love Ramona - she has heart and spunk. She is creative, and quirky, and naughty too.  If you read these books long ago and have forgotten how charming they are, read them again!