Adam and I have been reading to Doodles since he was in utero. When he was born, we began reading to him two or three times a day. As he’s gotten older, we’ve been reading to him more often.
Yet Doodles hasn’t always been so enamored of his books. As soon as he was capable of moving those little arms in a coordinated manner, he would yank the book from my hands and shove it into his mouth. I would put him on my lap and stretch my arm all the way out so he couldn’t reach the book.
Then Doodles moved on. No longer did he want to eat the books, he just wanted to turn the pages. Rapidly. I’d start reading really, really fast to keep up with him: “Goodnightcombgoodnightmushgoodnightnobodygoodnightmush.” What was harder was when he’d flip the pages backwards (skipping a few in the process) and I’d try to still keep up: “Goodnightcombgoodnightroomtwolittlekittensinthegreatgreenroom.”
I’d enviously watch other kids who actually looked at books. People assured me someday Doodles would enjoy looking at books too. I didn’t believe that day would ever come.
Well, that day has come (as I’m sure you guessed, else why else would I be writing this post?). You can imagine my absolute delight that when I now say to Doodles, “Bring me a book and I’ll read to you,” he walks over the shelf, pulls out all of the books until he gets to one of his two favorites, and carries it over to me with a big grin. He holds the book out to me and then waits for me to pull him up onto my lap. He doesn’t turn the page until I’m done reading it and occasionally he wants me to read the whole book again. True, when I’m done, he then flips through the book backwards and then shoves it into his mouth (he had stopped mouthing everything, but now that he has three molars coming in, back into the mouth the books go!). But he truly seems to love books.
In the mornings, he yawns and stretches along with Hey, Wake Up. In the bath, he splashes when Mimi does. When the monkeys fall off the bed (one of the two favorites), he points to his head and then shakes his finger “no” as the doctor says, “No more monkeys jumping on the bed!” He joins in the “raaaah” of when the gorilla sings (and I confess, when we first were given this book, I thought it awfully simplistic, but I now see its charm and Doodles is a big fan). But when we read him his absolute favorite book (judged by how many times he asks for it), he actually just sits patiently and reverently listens. (And I’m delighted to say that his favorite is one of my favorites too. I wouldn’t have survived having to read that grammatical nightmare of a book over and over.) Don’t read the reviews of the book though; they give away the ending (seriously, though, this is such a great book).
Now that we have a book lover on our hands, I can’t stop buying them for him! (At least I get them used.) Anyone got any favorites to suggest (and we’re still in the board book phase–he can’t quite turn paper pages yet)?
Well, this is good news because Doodle’s friend in Houston has a very PHYSICAL relationship with books as well. We’re waiting!