Esther Moonstomp Books

Here’s a new story which will be added to the stories page:

A New Bed For Lauren

Boing, boing, boing! It was six o’ clock in the morning and Lauren was bouncing up and down in her cot.

Lauren loved her cot. It was a bright place to be when the curtains were pulled back and the sun shone through onto the daffodil-yellow blankets and all her cuddly toys. And it was a soft place to be when it was nap time and a snuggly place in the evening when Mummy cuddled up to Lauren and read her a bedtime story.

Then Lauren would close her eyes and slowly drift off to sleep until six in the morning when her cot was a great place to be for bouncing in!

“Good morning, Lauren,” Mummy said, yawning and wiping the sleep from her eyes. “You’re getting too big for bouncing in your cot.”

Lauren stopped bouncing and stared at Mummy. She shook her head. “Not too big.”

“We’ll have to go shopping for a big girl’s bed,” Mummy said, smiling.

“No. I love my cot,” Lauren said, wrapping her arms around the cot and hugging it tight.

“We’ll see,” Mummy said and ruffled Lauren’s hair.

Later that day, Mummy and Daddy took Lauren around all the furniture shops. There were all sorts of beds – small beds just right for a little girl, beds with ladders, beds with slides and beds which sprung into sofas at the flick of a switch.

“You can have some nice new bedcovers, too,” Daddy said, pointing to rows and rows of colourful covers.

Lauren sighed. There were pretty pinks, rosy reds and beautiful blues but none quite like her sunny blankets at home. She didn’t think her teddies would like new covers either.

“Why don’t you try lying down on one of the beds, Lauren?” Mummy said, taking Lauren over to a particularly comfy looking bed.

Lauren clambered onto the bed and turned first one way, then the other. She led on her back and she led on her tummy.

“No, not comfy,” she said, her eyes filling with tears. “Not like my cot.”

Mummy sat down on the bed next to Lauren and stroked her hair gently. “I loved my cot too, Lauren. Grandma says I didn’t want a bed either, just like you.”

Lauren blinked her tears away. She frowned. But Mummy didn’t sleep in a cot anymore. She slept in a bed.

“Grandma told me that now I was a big girl, we were going to make my room into a very special room,” Mummy continued, “my cot would stay just where it was but I’d have a new bed, too.”

Lauren started to smile.

“Shall we make your room into a special room, too?” Mummy asked.

…

Lauren burst through the door of her bedroom and squealed excitedly. Mummy and Daddy followed closely behind.

“Your new bed will fit perfectly by the chest of drawers and we’ll leave your cot just where it is,” Mummy said, patting her rather large stomach. “This little one is going to love your cot, just as much as her older sister, isn’t she, Lauren?”

Lauren grinned. Just like her mummy when she was little, Lauren was going to have a new bed, a new little sister and she could still see her cot every day. She wouldn’t be able to sleep in it anymore once her sister was born but perhaps that wouldn’t be so bad. She would always love her cot but she was going to a big girl just like her mummy.

Besides, her new bed had a beautiful sunshine yellow quilt, was lovely and squishy to lie on and almost as snugly as her cot. But best of all, it was even bouncier. Not that her mummy and daddy had been too pleased when she’d started bouncing up and down on it in the shop. Lauren just couldn’t understand why.