The Baby-sitters just love little babies. So of course Kristy has the great idea of entering a float in the Stoneybrook Baby Parade.

I picked up a recent issue of the Stoneybrook News, thinking that I might find some interesting things for David Michael and Emily to cut out. Most of what I glanced at looked fairly boring though. There was a long story about a new sewage treatment plant, and another about some people's fiftieth wedding anniversary.

I kept leafing through the paper, looking for good pictures. The this ad caught my eye. "Calling All Babies!" it said. It was an ad for the Stoneybrook Baby Parade.

I remembered some of the baby parades I'd seen. They were pretty crazy! Every entry has to have a "theme" - and some of the themes are kind of ...well, imaginative. Like the float one year that was called "Circus Days." It had a twelve-foot-high elephant on wheels! Or the "Wild West" float I saw once, with a whole cowboys-and-indians pageant being acted out on top of it.

Babies in strollers had to have themes, too - they'd be dressed up like fairy-tale characters or people in the movies.

It was pretty silly, all right.

But after I'd read that as, my glance kept resting on Emily Michelle. She is adorable. Did I already tell you that? Well, she is. I looked at her glossy, straight black hair cut like a Dutch girl's. I looked at her sparkling brown almond-shaped eyes. I looked at her plump, pink cheeks and at her sturdy little hands (all covered with glue at the moment, but still very cute) and at her round little tummy.

I was getting an idea.

Kristy and the Baby Parade
Published by Scholastic Inc. 1996
ISBN: 0590435744