Compare your morning routine with your child to your evening one.
Bedtime is a little sweeter, right? Less hectic and go go go, now that you aren’t trying to get you, your partner, and your baby out the door and on to your respective days. Bedtime is slower, more loving. And it’s deeper than just getting ready to go to bed so you can do the crazed, getting ready sprint again in the morning. You get to reflect your family’s values with the food you eat, the books you read, and the music you play before you get the baby down for the count. Bedtime is a chance to re-establish your bond as a family.
That’s what stood out to us as we read Brown Baby Lullaby, a rhyming children’s book written by Tameka Fryer Brown and New York Times bestselling and NAACP Image Award-winning illustrator A.G. Ford.
The book lovingly captures a momma and papi love on their “sweet brown baby” as they get him ready for bed. Momma and Papi let bebito get out all of his energy the way babies and toddlers know how—crawling and bouncing up and down the hallway, being muy activo and banging pots and pans, making a mess when he eats dinner.




But after his bath, bebito gets the “yummy tummy” kisses and “warm snuggles” that makes him feel loved, safe, and ready to go to sleep.
Tameka Fryer Brown, a mom to young adult children, created this “lyrical love poem” as a way to look back and capture the nostalgia she felt for that time period when your babies are actually babies.
“I found myself contemplating the type of love we’d shared when they were little, how immensely pure and uncomplicated it was,” she writes. “Stirred by feelings of nostalgia, I decided to capture my emotions and memories on paper.”

A.G. Ford’s bright and warm illustrations depict a loving home and parents loving on their curly haired, brown “enchanting baby.” Each page reflects your own family’s routine back to you, and reminds you how sweet this fleeting time period it. You may not have noticed it when you were getting spaghetti off the walls or putting baby into the tub, but the words and images in Brown Baby Lullaby won’t let you forget.
Get a copy of Brown Baby Lullaby on Amazon.
More Books By Or Featuring Tameka Fryer Brown
This article includes affiliate links. mater mea may receive a commission from items purchased through these links.