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| How Little Bear Got to Sleep by Renae Cane |
| Papa Bear sat down in his big blue chair and called out "I have this lap space for sale. Anybody care for an almost brand-new lap with a nice, fluffy tummy to lean against? It comes with two arms for big hugs and a money-back guarantee". Little Bear ran over and said "But Papa, that's my lap. You can't sell my lap." Papa Bear looked down at Little Bear and smiled. "Well, I guess if you still want it, it's yours." Little Bear climbed up right away and settled in, just like he had done many times. Papa Bear waited until he stopped wiggling around, then said, "Mama said you had a busy day. What did you do?" Little Bear said "I was a train driver, and I had to make my own track. Then I got all the cars together and pulled them over the mountain and over to the roundhouse. But then there was a big crash, and a dinosaur ran over the tracks and fell on Weneas the wed engine. Then Silver the unicorn had to fly them to the doctor and she gave them plants and things to make them all better." Little Bear suddenly remembered something and scrambled down to the floor. "Jest a minit." He ran over to his room and ran back with his Power Rings that he had made into a big manta ray. "This is for you, Papa." Papa Bear took it and turned it all around to see everything. "It's wonderful, Little Bear. It makes me feel good just to hold it." Mama Bear came in and saw the Power Ring creation. "I don't know how you do it. I don't think I could make anything as complicated as that." Baby Bear just smiled. Papa Bear gave him a big hug and said "Well, time for a bath." Baby Bear said "Oh boy!" and jumped down off Papa's lap again. He ran to the bathroom, taking his clothes off on the way. Papa Bear followed him and helped him get all his bath toys. After Little Bear was finished with all the dinosaur attacks and the sharks who saved the drowning farm animals, Mama and Papa got him into bed. Mama Bear gave Little Bear a kiss and turned off the lamp. Little Bear said, "I want to go to bed, but I don't want to sleep yet." So Mama Bear told Little Bear a nice bedtime story. When she finished, she saw that Little Bear's bright eyes were still open, so she sang him a sweet lullaby. "Go to sleepy little baby, go to sleepy little baby. When you wake, we'll patty patty cake And sail a ship across the ocean blue" But Little Bear was still tossing and turning in the bed, kicking off the covers and too full of energy to sleep. So Mama Bear asked Little Bear "What do you do when you're really sleepy before you go to bed?" Little Bear said "I yawn, great big." Mama Bear said "You do? Like this?" and Mama Bear gave a great big yawn. Little Bear said, "Yes." Mama Bear asked "Can you do that for me?" Little Bear gave a yawn. Then Mama Bear said "Can you do a Verrry Sleepy yawn for me?" Little Bear gave a great big yawn. But his eyes were still bright as stars. So Mama Bear said, "Can you stretch great big like this?" and she stretched like a cat all the way from her eyes to her toes. Baby Bear did, too, but he did it so fast that he missed some parts, so Mama helped him by naming the parts to stretch: First eyes, then nose, then jaw, then neck in all directions, then shoulders, then arms, then wrists, then fingers. Now back, now bunnies, now thighs, now lower legs, now point the toes to finish. But he was still not sleepy. So she said "Now we'll pick ten berries off the bush, real slow". As she counted softly, she smoothed with her fingers from just above his eyebrows up and back to the pillow, very gently and slowly, over and over. Sometimes she would gently run her forefinger and middle finger from the eyebrows down to both sides of the bridge of Baby Bear's nose. A few times, she would use the pads of her fingers to gently smooth the skin above the eyebrows from the middle of the forehead to the temples, and because she was so gentle and slow, Baby Bear's eyes would close and usually not open again as she sang,* "10 little, 9 little, 8 little berries 7 little, 6 little, 5 little berries 4 little, 3 little, 2 little berries 1 little berry, all gone." Then Mama Bear said softly "I love you, Little Bear". But Little Bear didn't say anything, because he was off in dreamland. |
| *use the melody for "10 little Indians" |
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