On the Lap has a New Blog Author: Introducing MaryBeth

I am so pleased to announce that On The Lap now has several new authors. On the Lap is now a collaboration of several women, all of which are moms who love reading to their children and believe that doing so enriches their lives. I am so excited to have you meet, MaryBeth.

Hello!! My name is Mary Beth, I am a Wife to a very awesome and helpful Husband, Dustin, and a Mother of two awesome Children, Ansley is 3 and Justus will be 2 in August! Because of my children I have found a new Love for Children’s Literacy. This love all started when I was pregnant with Ansley. My husband and I dreamed about our little girl 24/7 we thought about every little detail, and how we would “raise” her!! The Raising part has been a bit of a challenge as it is for most everyone, both kids are very funny and quiet a hand full! So back to the books, first I bought Charlotte’s Web By: E.B. White. I read a chapter every night to her while she was still growing in my belly! After that we started buying Children’s books as we saw some that interested us. For our baby shower we asked the guest to buy a book for Ansley instead of a Card this was such an awesome idea and helped out a lot. The day after I had her I was resting in the hospital room when Dustin came in the door and was so ecstatic and couldn’t believe that there was a book sale going on down in the Lobby. He bought two books then and as soon as she came home from the hospital we started reading to her!
We went through a stage when she had just turned two where she did not care if we read or not but we kept on and did not give up.. Now we have to limit the books at bedtime to only 2-3 stories! Sometimes if I read Ansley a story she calls for her Daddy to come in the room and re-read the same story! I am also so thankful that he does this with the kids. It is so amazing to hear him in there reading to them!

As time went by I found a new interest. I started wanting to have some sort of craft or activity with a story I read. Most of the time I would search online for some simple idea’s or just do some coloring pages. Coloring Pages are fun but they get old quickly.. When I found Aimee’s blog, I fell in love, and thought this blog is so awesome!

So over time I have became great friends with Aimee and fell in Love with her family. My children love to go hang out at her house, Ansley loves “all the boys” and Justus well he just loves to climb up the stairs, run in circles and look for paci’s oh and he likes to eat when we are there as well! Today I was asked by Aimee if I would like to be one of the Authors for her blog. Of Course I said yes and I had a few idea’s, like how I could blog about the book we read before bedtime or how I could blog about places that I enjoyed taking the kids to read or to listen to a story.. But Aimee, well you know Aimee she always has an awesome idea, she said how about doing that plus lets have themes and other things and we can pair them with books and activities for children and parent’s!!! HOW FUN AND EXCITING I thought!!
So now I am pumped and I hope you all keep checking back in to see what we are up to! This is going to be fun and there are many pictures and blogs to come!!

This a true "say cheese" picture from one night that we were out eating with some family and the kids were wearing their new Ikea hats!