My Little Reader

I LOVE to read, and I have since I was a child. Growing up, the vast majority of my allowance went to books. Besides the books I bought and read multiple times, I usually had a stack checked out from the library, and it was rare to find me without my nose in a book. Before Claire was born, I was really looking forward to reading to her, but for her first year she wasn't that into it. She'd squirm on my lap, grab at the pages, try to eat the book, etc. We still read to her some, but it wasn't going as I envisioned.

That all changed one day last week. Claire and I were playing on the floor before dinner, and I picked up one of her new Sandra Boynton books to read to her while she played. As soon as I started reading, she crawled over and knelt beside me to look at the pages, then pulled up to look over my shoulder before manuevering herself into my lap. I wasn't sure what warmed my heart more - having my baby crawl into my lap by herself for the first time or seeing her so interested in a book. We read two books two times each and one more before she was ready to move onto something else. Since then she has been so interested in being read to and loves playing with her books - she'll sit on the floor and turn the pages by herself for several minutes. I'm so happy to see this development and hope that someday she finds the same pleasure in reading that I've experienced during my life.