Oh, the illusions you have about motherhood. I had all these visions of reading time, just the two of us, snuggled in a little nook, reading cute books full of fun stories and beautiful illustrations.
NOT!
The reality is a kid that chatters constantly, tries to rip the pages out of the book and crumple them up, or just plain wiggles away! So frustrating! But reading is important, and so we persevere… Onward literary soldiers!
Today I decided to try a different strategy. Instead of going to the kitchen to have highchair Cheerio time after her morning nap, I brought Ali into our bed to have a quick bottle “snack.” Bottles are really the only things that keep her still these days. Afterward, there are about 3 minutes of lounging, before she quickly returns to the business of learning how to stand. I decided to try to capitalize on those minutes, lounging with her and grabbing a book to read. She was immediately interested and rolled over to be able to see the pictures better. Then she sat herself up and crawled on top of me to get closer to the pages. She smiled and pointed at the girl and animals in the illustrations, and we made it through the whole book!
Today we read How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World by Marjorie Priceman. Its about a little girl who finds her grocery store closed, and so travels around the world to get the ingredients she needs to make an apple pie. My favorite part: “Hitch a ride to England. Make the acquaintance of a cow. You’ll know she’s an English cow from her good manners and charming accent.”
I’m finding that anybody can write a children’s book, but not everyone should. There are 10 crappy books for every good book. But this one was great, and although I grabbed it from the library, I may actually buy a copy. At any rate, I would call reading time a SUCCESS for the day!
Although, now I want apple pie…
In other news, today is my Mom’s birthday!
Here she is with Ali (a few weeks old) last Christmas. Yeah, my Mom is awesome. Happy Birthday Mom!
Vixen and Kit 