It all started with "The Going to Bed" Book...

It seemingly happens overnight.

You wake up one day, and your child has a few toys, a few books, a few blankets, a few stuffed animals.

The next day - THE VERY NEXT DAY - you wake up and your multiple children have mounds of toys and thousands of books and blankets enough to soothe an small country and stuffed animals multiplying in the dark corners of the closet.

Sometimes, this realization induces shock. When we were preparing to move from Our Big Lake House to Our Tiny Townhouse a few years back, I walked into the kids' playroom and gaped at the amount of toys we had accumulated in four years. (It also triggered a major purging project. But that's a story for another day.)

Sometimes, it prompts new rules. After our last move, I firmly told all extended family members, "No more stuffed animals. We have too many, and they are rarely played with. If you persist in giving me or one of my children a soft furry creature, I will donate it to Goodwill or eat it for dinner."

But sometimes, it reveals an addiction too delightful to battle. Such is the case with children's books and me.

When Natalie was a toddler, her board books fit on a small shelf on top of her dresser. We added to the collection when Connor was a baby, but even then, the books could fit into a basket that rested next to the rocking chair.

Then we started our weekly outings to the library, where I found myself falling in love with books like "The Pumpkin Fair" and "Slugs in Love" and "The Gardener." We didn't have a decent bookstore in Tiny Town, but Amazon and its lure of free shipping substituted nicely.

Then Natalie started school, and the Scholastic catalog became a monthly staple. I was almost helpless before the $1 deal of the month, the whimsical titles, the seasonal offerings.

These days, we have a rather large bookshelf devoted to children's books ranging from board books to chapter books, and it is packed with awesomeness. So asking me to choose one or two children's books to recommend is like asking the Pioneer Woman to choose her favorite recipe.

Since I'm linking this post to O My Book week at O My Family (run by my real-life friend Allison), I'm going to think about what books I'd most like to read her sweet son. And when thus confined, my selection is simple: I'd choose anything by the delightful Sandra Boynton.

I believe it was "The Going to Bed Book" which first captivated me. It follows the antics of an ark of animals as they go through their bedtime rituals. (My favorite? "When the moon is on the rise, they all go up to EXERCISE.") Her whimsical illustrations are simple enough to hold a toddler's attention without overwhelming them, and her lyrical verses are sweet and funny enough to entertain Moms and Dads forced to read the book every night for two years straight.

I was so hooked by "The Going to Bed Book," I bought two boxed sets of Boynton books for Natalie's second birthday.

"Boynton's Greatest Hits, Volume 1" includes classics like "Moo, Baa, La, La, La" and "Blue Hat, Green Hat" and "A to Z" and "Doggies." (When Connor was two, he had memorized "Doggies" so well, he could read it to himself, complete with individual doggie sound effects. "Ruff! Grrr. Howl!")

"Boynton's Greatest Hits, Volume 2" includes the before-mentioned "Going to Bed Book," as well as "Horns to Toes" and "Opposites" and "But Not the Hippopotamus."

We also have many other Boynton hits like "Snuggle Puppy," which became something of a theme book for Connor and me, and "Pajama Time," which doubles as a jazzy bedtime dance tune, and "What's Wrong Little Pookie?" in which a concerned mother hippo tries to figure out what's bothering her Little Pookie. (Punchline? "Ummm. I forget.")

Bonus tip: Be sure to check out Boynton's CDs, which put some of her most beloved rhymes to song. We own "Philadelphia Chickens" - which Boynton describes as an "imaginary musical review" - and it's a classic.