Reading With My Toddler

Read To Me!

I definitely feel like I failed in the read to your baby department. I never read to Jellybean when he was in my belly and hardly ever did it when he was a baby. Everything I saw said read to your baby from an early age even though they don't understand you and have no idea what you're doing. Well, when I tried to read to him, he showed no interest. And reading to a 2 month old just didn't appeal to me, I talked to him instead. Then when he spent more time awake than napping during the day and I tried to read to him, he didn't care for any of it. He preferred his toys that lit up or made noise or preferred to crawl all over the place. Between his aversion to books, delayed first word, and super early mobility milestones, I was certain I had a jock on my hands vs. a bookworm. His not caring for books and my not pushing it on him seems odd considering I am a HUGE bookworm. When I was a kid, after I "had" to go to bed, I'd bring a flashlight to my room and read under the covers. There were plenty of times that my mom caught me staying up late reading a book. How do you reprimand a kid who wants to bury their nose in a book? At least I wasn't staying up late watching TV! To this day I love books and am working towards making my own Beauty and the Beast library. The movers always have such a great time packing all my books :) Anyway, while I felt pangs of guilt that I didn't read to my kid ALL THE TIME when he was a baby, I had too many other things going on between work and raising him that I didn't sweat it too much.


Well baby books, I have something to tell you! Even though I didn't force books on my kid before he could appreciate them, now, at 16 months, he is finally a book worm! He LOVES reading. He is always bringing me his favorite book (Where is Baby's Belly Button) to read. It's quite adorable. He grabs the book, puts it in my lap, asks for "up," I place him next to me on the couch, he cuddles extra close, and we read that book.....over and over and over and over and over and over again. If I'm sitting on the bottom step (which is surprisingly comfortable for me at this point in my pregnancy) he brings me the book, sits right next to me on the step, and asks me to read to him. I've read that freaking book so many times it's kind of annoying! But now that he's so eager to read, there's no way I'm going to deter him. So even though it may be the 80th time we've found baby's belly button, if he wants to go for round 81, then I'm going to do it. Although I will admit, sometimes, I hide the books from him for a little while..... or make him take the book to Matt. Which he's perfectly happy doing, as long as someone is reading to him.


So there ya go baby book experts. I didn't read to my kid those first several months of his life and he is still an adamant read to me toddler. Phew! Makes me really happy that's for sure. And I imagine this time around, while I read to him, his baby brother Tater Tot will be right next to me too. If Tater Tot doesn't end up liking books because he was read to at such a young age....then we might have a problem baby experts. I highly doubt that will be the case though.


I can't wait until these boys are older and I can read to them before bed and they'll actually understand the stories! I have fantasies about reading Harry Potter, The Phantom Tollbooth, Chronicles of Narnia and so many others with them. I can't wait until they're reading Dr. Seuss, Shel Silverstein, and Hardy Boys. Matt can't wait until they're reading comic books and sports stats.