The Gift of Books

I have always been a big reader. I love books and I can name thousands upon thousands of beloved titles that I have poured over and loved. I have read more Babysitter's Club and Sweet Valley High than is probably even normal. I love Harry Potter and The Hunger Games and pretty much everything Jodi Picoult ever wrote. I can remember learning new words because of books and ways to describe ordinary things because of the amazing language I have accumulated. So when I had Reese, I knew that I wanted to trasfer that love of reading on to her. From the day we brought her home from the hospital we read books to her. We watched her learn to turn pages and we participated in the summer reading program at the library. But it wasn't until just this last week that I saw the reading really make a difference.

We have been reading a few books over and over and over and over again. With the snow days, weekend and holiday we've had a lot of time to dive in to reading and we really have! But Reese is really getting involved in her reading. She picks out books, she has to be the one who decides what we read of course, and we sit and read book after book. I love having her curled up in my lap wanting to listen to the story.

She has a book describing body parts and this weekend she began pointing to them when I asked her where her nose or mouth or ears were. I was so excited because we've worked on that forever! She told me what a cow says, repeated purple to me and keeps pointing to the dogs and making the sign (panting) for dog (which I've substituted in whenever we read about what a dog says). All these little things are huge rewards for me after all the hard work I've put in starting good reading habits.

Below are some of our very most favorite books. Open the Barn Door has little peekaboo flaps for each animal and she bounces up and down each time we open one. And Farmer Joe and the Music Show has become a crowd pleaser each time it is picked up. We could read it up to 15 times each day. There are many more, but if you are looking for a couple of good reads, check them out, I hope they make someone you know as happy as they make my baby girl.