Reading Time!

I love to read and I don't read nearly as much as I would like to. I was such a reading nerd as a kid. It started with a bribe by my parents that they would give me a dollar for every book that I read and spiraled from there. Unfortunately the payment stopped (or I might have a lot more money today) but the love for reading had been instilled. I remember reading on the playground with my friend Ashley in elementary school and finishing an entire book during recess. I also would try to hide books and read them under my desk. I am such a reading nerd that I have gone as far as to dress up as a character for a book release. (I may or may not have dressed up as Tonks for Deathly Hallows). I really want to instill this love for reading in Cian as well. We started reading to him pretty much as soon as we got him home from the hospital. We would lay him down on a blanket and read for a bit while he wiggled and moved. I think we started a bit lofty because we read him things like The Hobbit. Guess we'll wait a few years before we go back to that one. We have made it a point to read to him as often as possible so that he can hear the words and get some undivided attention from us. This was really easy when he was a few moths and had to lay there and listen to us. It became much harder as he became more mobile. At first he would just lay there or sit in my lap and listen as I read the book. I had a great time with this, mimicking the voices or animal sounds and he would just smile and laugh. Well, eventually he learned these great things called crawling and walking and he would wiggle and squiggle to get out of my lap after about a page. In addition to that he wants to turn the pages at his pace. This pace is not a normal reading pace. I get "Brown Bear" out and before I can say "Brown Bear what do you see" he is off to the next page. But, ah-ha, I am the mom and I am smarter than he is (sometimes). I have learned to add motion and sometimes jumping and throwing in addition to the voices and animal sounds to keep his attention. Story time in our house might look like a circus act but it is merely an attempt at a bed time ritual that will harbor a love for the written word. Here he is Cian at about five months old, see as soon as he could sit up I stuck a book in his lap. I was really excited when I found out about the Books from Birth program that they have in TN. You sign your child up and they get a free age appropriate book each month until they are five years old. I know many great organizations and individuals donate money to make this possible and I am so thankful. I am excited every month when the new book arrives and I always try to read it to Cian that night! This month the book is called Roar of a Snore. This one was really fun to read, I got to make up snores for dog, mom, dad, baby, twin sisters, farm animals, and a little kitten who had the roooaaaarrr of a snore as the brother went through his house and family searching for the snore that was keeping him awake. Roar was always loud and boistrous but some snores were small and some were wheezes. (The book helped in describing a lot of the snores, I just had to make them my own).I actually kept Cian's attention for most of the book until he saw his ball across the room. Alas, even with my bells, whistles and snores, I am no match for throwing a ball.

Cian may not end up loving to read, but I will always love our time together laughing and reading.
Who knows, maybe one day I will be able to read him a book I wrote!