*I am so thrilled by the enthusiastic responses to yesterday's post. I'm very interested to see what you all come up with, so if you do find that perfect thrifted sheet and decide to do something with it, let me know-I'd love to see it!*
A good deal of our day is spent reading. I started reading to Elisabeth when she was three weeks old. For months it was one of the only ways to stop the incessant crying. She had her favorites back then; those books that really caught her attention, even during the midst of doctors poking and prodding and the long car drives down to the big city.
We keep a basket handy of books to get through the week. It sits in the living room near the rest of her toys. There are pillows to plop on for a good read and snacks always nearby. Sometimes she can get absorbed in a book for about fifteen minutes, which is saying a lot considering she never seems to slow down for anything else; not even food.
We're still mostly into board books because she does like to flip the pages herself and tends to lug the books around with her everywhere, so traditional paper pages just don't hold up. However, we are now into reading longer stories so our biweekly trips to the library result in a bag full of books mama is very excited to get reading.
The rest of her books are kept in her room. We rotate the selection in the smaller basket each week. Most of the books come from thrift shops and the secondhand bookstore in town. Our local bookstore carries a wonderful selection of children's books and I've had my eye on Elsa Beskow's books for weeks now.
Most of the day, our reading time is spontaneous. She grabs a book, comes over and puts it in my lap while signing the word for "more" (like the above photo) and saying "please" ("peeee!"). We sit, read, and repeat the process until we've gone through at least five books.
Most of the time it's mama who needs a break from the reading. There's only so many times I can read about saying goodnight to a moon in one day. But I have to smile when she insists on reading the same book I loved as a child over and over again. The same old, well-loved, taped together copy I had at her age.
But I really enjoy our reading time together. It's the only (and I mean only) time of the day when she is contently sitting and not struggling to get out of my lap. She is one busy little lady, and I am so thankful for her love of books and the time it allows us to spend together.
We're always on the lookout for more great books. Please, leave a comment and let us know some of your favorites.
