Everyone in the family is falling asleep with books in their hands these days. I’ve been absorbed in Irene Nemirovsky’s amazing, heartbreaking Suite Francaise; Tony’s filling a gap in his California history with Simon Winchester’s A Crack in the Edge of the World. Ben, as you see in this picture, is just trying to absorb as much information as he can (he alternates reading this encyclopedia and Experiments in Science: How Does it Work? a fabulous book of simple science experiments for ages 5 and up). And Eli lately takes Kipper to bed with him at every nap, clearly enjoying the message about not really tidying his basket; the current crib census includes 6 blankets (which he names as I lay them over him), his lovey (aka “patch blanket”), one mole, one knit bear, one lemur, one Pat the Bunny, one Piglet, one giraffe, one gorilla, one dachshund, one cow, one baby doll, two small stuffed dogs (Brown Doggie and Purple Doggie) and one plastic goat.