“Let me read this book to you, Mom.” This phrase ranks right up there between “I love you” and “Look what I did without being asked” in my book. When this little sweetheart brings me a book and not only reads, but comprehends, and reads with inflection, I can’t contain my excitement.
We started reading to Ella as soon as we brought her home from the hospital, introducing her to Berenstein Bears and The Poky Little Puppy long before she could engage in the story line. She would sit in our laps as we rocked in the chair, listening to the cadence of our voices, sitting through multiple stories, quieting down when she felt fussy.
As she grew, so did our collection of books. My baby gift to Tim for our first born? A collection of books he loved as a child. One of the most precious gifts from my Mom? A box of books from mine. Story time became something we treasured and we were so proud to have a little girl who shared our adoration of books.
I’m loathe to admit it, but Ella’s love of books even meant that the worst consequence for bad behavior meant two stories instead of three at bedtime. Only recently has this threat lost some of it’s potency. Her response, “Fine. I’ll just read to myself.”
I love watching my daughter get lost in a story, sitting open mouthed, wide eyed, and gasping in anticipation. She treasures the words, savors the story, and imagines her way into new worlds. At 5, she’s unlocked the ability to escape the moment and invent new worlds. I can’t wait to share my favorite stories with her as she grows and I’ll never grow tired of hearing, “Let me read this story to you, Mom.”
This is so awesome. I let Keeley pick out 10-15 books at the library (trying to screen ones that obviously too long, too hard, or repeats–2 Cinderella books when we’ve had them out twice already is a no, for example) so she’s more likely to ‘read’ them herself and not just beg me to read. She read a 23 page pony book, which incorporated pictures for some of the words. Believe it or not, that was harder for her than just text. She asked for a piece of candy, and you know what? I gave it to her. She did such an awesome job.
I posted a picture on facebook the other day, a giant stack of books and captioned ‘what we just spent the last 45 minutes doing’. I love reading to him, always have like you did with Ella. I can’t wait until he can read to himself and I can hear it and enjoy it but for now I will take ‘can we read another one momma?’