My favorite activity on earth is reading in my bed, a kid on each side.

One evening, I was reading Three Junes by Julia Glass. Max and Calvin were both engrossed in Dav Pilkey’s Dog Man books.

“Look Mama, all his jokes are about diarrhea,” Max laughed.

I looked over at the graphic novel and saw a cute kitten telling diarrhea jokes.

I would turn back to my book and then Calvin would show me something equally hilarious.

There is a lot of silliness in the Dog Man books – the premise being a man and a dog that had an unfortunate accident, turning them into the super-powered Dog Man. Their foe is an evil cat. There are also people that act dumb, explosions, all the stuff that is simple, gross and funny.

Author and artist Dav Pilkey knows his audience. My kids can’t get enough. Calvin has all the books and is always excited about the new ones.

“Ok, Mama, we’ll pose for your photo.”

They sit on either side of me and cackle and I have to laugh too. It reminds me of when I read David Sedaris books and laugh out loud.

But did I mention the farts?

There’s a lot of farting as they read, adding to the hilarity. (For them.)

It’s time for bed and Dog Man has them wound up and after going through the nightly ritual of bedtime negotiations, I go back to my bed to read the elegant Three Junes.

My bed smells like farts.

It’s gross but I have to admit, it was a good night.

As I was writing this post, Calvin was upstairs laughing. Eddie asked, “What’s so funny?”

Max’s answer: “He’s he’s reading Dog Man.”