Reading Up a Storm

Since writing this post a (mostly) wonderful thing has happened: my son has fallen in love with books.

For the past couple of months he has been bringing me books to read him several times a day. His books, his sister's books, he loves them all. He'll sit still while I read them, too. It's great because if K is around then she can sit with us and I can read her books to both children, which is impossible when M is not in the mood. Our children's bookshelves are getting a lot more use now.

The bad part is...he WON'T STOP BRINGING ME BOOKS. He can do the sign for 'book', but usually he prefers to hand it to me repeatedly, hit me with it, or chew on it. He is doing some serious damage to board books that have already withstood the mild wear and tear of Baby K. And since he loves the big kid books (with paper pages) just as much as his board books, and because we have nowhere to put them where K can get them but M can't, he is also doing some damage to our big kid book collection. So far the only book he has torn badly was one we didn't like anyway, but it's sure to happen.

Oh, and of course there's the constant pulling the books off the bookshelves. On a day when he has really been at the books, the whole floor is carpeted with books, because obviously the floor is a much better place than the shelf to keep them all and obviously if mommy picks them up, she really wants you to spread them back out again.

So there's somewhat of a down side to a toddler who loves books...but I am still thrilled that M is enjoying books so much, and that we are able to read so much more now.

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M isn't the only member of this family on a reading kick, though. When we traveled after Christmas I loaded my Kindle with a bunch of books I've been meaning to read, starting with The Hunger Games. I read the first book almost completely on the airplane while the little ones slept, and tore through the next two over the next few days. Then I started another set of books, finished it, started another... Part of it is that I'm doing better about reading while other people are awake instead of waiting for the house to be silent (and then being too tired to actually read). And of course part of it is that I've had the good luck to find a string of very engaging books that don't let you put them down for long.

I should probably make a point of reading paper books so the little ones see me reading, etc., but at this point reading words of any kind that aren't on a computer screen is a win. I'm also afraid my little book monster would destroy my book. And I'm trying to tell myself that since my Kindle cover looks kind of like a book that it TOTALLY COUNTS, especially since I showed K the words and told her there are books inside... Haha :) Let's just say I'm glad to be making time to read again.