And we re-discovred The Bears' Vacation (The Berenstain Bears family)

There are many things I discovered after coming to the US. 
One of those was the kids' wonderful world of story books and magicians in that area such as Dr. Seuss  or Eric Carle (till recently I did not even pay attention to the author names, just the books). I did not understand enough when my son, back from pre-school one day, was sprouting all gibberish like 'one fish two fish, red fish blue fish'  (yeah , imagine my lack of awareness).  This in no way means I lacked for stories or books when I was a kid. Just the opposite. But that world was different. The world I saw thru his books was quite different.

One fine day , in the library sale, I just happened to have my hands on 'The Bears' Vacation' (not paying any attention to the author's name - again) and cracked up by each page. I just had to have it.

Not to mention, about the special emotions evoked in mothers. When they see things going wrong by the dads, they are delighted in a twisted way. (Am I alone in thinking this? I hope not). Although the book does not show that part I am sure it's meant to be understood. But yes, I had to share this with my son and his Dad.

And they cracked up too. My husband did give me a look of 'me getting the book just to tease him deliberately' but could not stop laughing.

My son had not even learned reading yet, not more than just basic words. He memorized the whole book by the pages. The lyrical text is of course genius but by no means short, the book is long for a 2-3 years old. But he loved it so much, he used to read it to us without any help by just starting on the first page and going thru all the rest of the pages, with just his memory. The mirth in between was priceless.

The way Dad teaches his son the rule of safe beach vacation - by hazarding his own safety at every turn by mistake , is just hilarious. He is the carelessness personified but still the role model for his innocent son .. as he thinks ... well .. Dad you are showing me how dangerous everything can be by actually doing it. Such great training. He is so innocent and in his eyes Dad can do no wrong. (all moms here - Wink ;) ).

We re-discovered the book after that time period around 4-5 years later , during my son's latest school projects. He had to pick up his favorite book. And when we were perusing our personal home library , the book popped out. Not only we had a laughing bed time that night, he had a fantastic time next day in the class during story reading. He found more friends relating to it who had already read it.

The rhyme is great, the pictures are 'in action'. But as always, what grabs you is the story. The best so far still I have seen even in last few years. Hope you have enjoyed it or if not , you would be at some point of time. Happy reading.

P.S. - I finally read the author's names :) Stan and Jan Berenstain. The style is reminiscent of Dr. Seuss but quite different. Although I found out he (Dr. Seuss i.e. ) did edit for them. This was quite a pleasant surprise for me. 
 Here is the authors' blog itself with an interesting story too. For those who are interested.

http://berenstainbears.wordpress.com/2012/03/05/book-5-the-bears-vacation/

 
 

So next to-do in my list , reading some more Berenstain bears family stories.

Till then.

Made a promise to yourself ? How long it took you to act on it?

It took me a long time. Really really a long time (not saying how long :) . 

Every time I hit a link with a 'B' logo of blogging, after I searched for a recipe or musical instrument reviews or even the last time I had to search 'how to create a blog', I thought (later started vowing as much) that I will also write a blog some day. Just as fun. Just cause I would like to type things in instead of using a lot of voice.
But of course as evident it was not until today. That voice of procrastination , kept speaking to me 'Ehh , big deal, what's in it anyway','someday', 'aah I could have written something about this, some other day' and so on and so on. 


Am I the only one ? Anyone who is out there, ever started blogging the minute you thought you were going to? Would love to hear about any kind of experience sharing on that.

When I was a little girl , I was eager to grow up so I could do many things , I could not do as a child. Just as I imagine must be for every child. But I discovered even if I am a grown woman, I still could not do a lot of things on my to do list.
 
I still don't have time for a lot of things in life. I am not talking about routine things such as grocery shopping or eating ice cream with family. Routine things you do with your family, at times friends, relatives, colleagues. Those are of course important. But I am talking about things you just think of doing for yourself. Silently thinking most of the times. And at the same time we also tell ourselves, we don't have enough time for it now, maybe someday.

Still you keep on making promises about those. Doing things that of course matters to you. If not in conscious day to day thoughts, in your subconscious thoughts, you have made many decisions. About starting those swim lessons, about taking that language course, about reading that specific book and so much more. 

How long it takes for every one of us to finally deliver on that promise to yourself? A day , a month, a year? Or more even. But do you stop making these small wishes come promises to yourself , because of the delay?

I am sure for many, regardless of how long it took you last time, to deliver on a promise, you would still make another. Or make a small wishlist and so on. And that's how it should be. That's the spirit of being human, being with hope for the self. Here's to the very very human nature of the process - thinking of yourself (JUST yourself), making a decision, making a promise , procrastinating and still making it one fine day! 

Wish the very best to all of you who have decided to do something for themselves , no matter how small or a big decision it is for you.  No matter how long it's going to take you to take the first step on that decision. But you will make it happen one of these days. Share if you can , just to keep the inspiration going.

Here is another wish I made for myself, going to read lots of other blogs (about blog sites too) which I always thought of , but never got enough time! Always wanted to check out Big B's blog. Good luck to me !