A Love for Reading

It is very important to me that my kids love to read.  I was a reader growing up and still would be if I could ever find the time...haha!  I'm a teacher for goodness sakes so of course I am going to promote reading!

Brian was easy.  I read to him when I was pregnant.  Often.  Shawn recorded "Where the Wild Things Are" and I played that to Brian in my belly.  Over and over.  He loved to be read to from a very young age.  As soon as he was able he would go get books for us to read to him.  He would sit and look at books for hours.  Now that he's in preschool, he comes home each week so proud of the new letter/sound he has learned.  And I cannot wait for him to be able to put them all together and read to himself.  For real.  He's going to LOVE it!

Lilah was a different story.  Let's face it, there just isn't time to read to the 2nd baby while pregnant when there is a toddler running around.  I tried to read to Lilah in my belly...and did...some.  But not nearly as much as with Brian.  I played "Where the Wild Things Are" read by Shawn to her...once....maybe twice.  I honestly didn't read to her when she was very young.  Not much anyway.  I just couldn't find the time.  I would read to Brian with her around, but his books her too advanced for her really.  I started to get worried when she became mobile and her idea of "reading" was chewing on the books.  I mean, the girl loves to eat, but books?!  So Shawn and I made more of an effort to read to her.  But she really wasn't too interested.  She would tolerate it for awhile, but eventually she would find something else to do.

Recently that has all changed.  Lilah is finally into books.  She brings them to us and says "books" in her sweet little baby voice.  Brian "reads" to her often.  He has several of her books memorized and it's so cute to see them reading together.  They even fight over the toy catalogs that come in the mail.  And demand that I hand them over as soon and I bring one in the house!  They read in the car pretty much all the time.  Last night Lilah even wanted to take a book into the bathtub.  Luckily I remembered we had a bath book of Brian's so she took that into the tub.  I love my little readers!

Brian reading to his cars!

Not sure why they like to read on the steps!

We pulled out the basket of Christmas books which sparked a reading frenzy before bath time!