He said/ She said: Bedtime stories

___Of all the zany times of the day at our household, bedtime has become one of my most favorite. ___ It's not that Luke and Garrett are eager to go to sleep, or that it's easy to get them in the shower, or that they jump at the chance to brush their teeth. Rather, bedtime is eagerly anticipated because of the bedtime stories. ___ The boys are at the age n MARK WINGFIELD ow where even Mom and Dad get excited about our family reading adventures at bedtime. Thank goodness we are beyond the preschool stage of rereading the same books over and over and over and over and over. Although, those are really cute books. I do miss "Goodnight Moon." ___ For the last few years, we've been able to sit down together each night and transport ourselves into faraway and imaginary places through the adventures of the Boxcar Children, the Chronicles of Narnia and now Harry Potter. ___ Granted, in between these special book series that we all love there falls an occasional clunker. And my attempts to expose the boys to some literary classics for children often have been exercises in leading a horse to water but not getting him to drink. Luke and Garrett wanted nothing to do with "Tom Sawyer," though I've twice tried to read it to them. Now they just moan and roll their eyes whenever I mention it. ___ I, in turn, roll my eyes and moan on the nights they'd be content for us all to sit down and read "Captain Underpants" together or look at the drawings of some cartoon book. ___ But when we find a book or series we all agree upon, magical moments happen. Perhaps the first such experiences began to unfold a couple of years ago when we started reading the Boxcar Children books. This was a trip down memory lane--albeit a severely lapsed memory--for me, because these were books I loved as a child myself, even if I couldn't remember how the mysteries got solved. Together, our family discovered and rediscovered the adventures of the Alden children. This series set us on a journey of priceless times shared together each night. ___ Dinnertime is an important family time, and we do try to preserve that as much as possible. But the most consistent family time we have comes when we all sit down together with a good book. __Chronicles of Narnia was a big hit, but Harry Potter is quickly becoming the favorite. I put off starting the series, which I had already devoured for myself, because I wasn't sure how Luke and Garrett would deal with some of the scary characters. They get scared easily, and I didn't want them to have any nightmares after we read the books. ___They ALISON WINGFIELD have assured me that what I thought was scary is not to them (although there have been a few bad dream incidents that make me wonder). Harry does keep us riveted each night. ___I must admit there are some definite side benefits to the Harry Potter books. The boys get ready for bed much quicker. All I have to say is, "The faster you get ready, the more time we'll have for Harry," and they go into overdrive finishing their bedtime routine in record time. ___Mark has been just as bad as the boys. Whenever he is going to be out of pocket during bedtime, he shakes his finger at us and says we can't read Harry Potter that night. I tell him he can catch up and read what we've read on his own. ___ We were approaching the end of the second book recently when Mark noted that we wouldn't be able to finish it before he headed out of town for a week. The boys came up with a solution. We read for close to three hours that weekend so we could finish it. Mark and I took turns until we were hoarse. ___ Garrett is now begging to read the third book on his own. Normally I would be thrilled at such a request, but I'm too selfish. I don't want to give up this special time of reading together. We've held him off by promising that we will listen to it on tape while on our spring break road trip. ___ We cherish those special times together, because we know that all too soon our little wizards are going to grow up and be too busy to read with Mom and Dad. Mark Wingfield is managing editor of the Standard. Alison Wingfield is a freelance writer. The Wingfields moved to Texas from Louisville, Ky., where Mark had been editor of the Western Recorder, in which this column appeared weekly.

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