When I imagined having children, one thing I often pictured was reading stories at bedtime. I love reading and want to pass this passion onto my children, so I introduced books to both of them as soon as they came home from the hospital.
Laura likes texture books-the kind where she can feel a rabbit's fur or touch an elephant's ear. Her favorites, however, are those that she can cram in her mouth and chew. We don’t do much reading, per se, but she's getting the exposure...
Joey loves his books and through them, he is not only learning new words and ideas, but also the art of negotiation. At night, I will say "Okay Joey, pick out two stories to read before bed" and he inevitably says "No Mommy, 4 stories!" We usually compromise at three, but I admire his efforts in trying to squeeze one more out of me.
As is typical with a toddler, he tends to read the same books over and over again. I readily admit that I'm bored with them long before he is, but I try to muster enthusiasm as I read "Make Way for Ducklings" by Robert McCloskey, for the 7th night in a row.
His current passion is Dr. Seuess's "Oh The Thinks You Can Think". When we get to the page "And what would you do if you met a Jibboo?" we pause and talk about all the things we would do.
We've come up with many, but singing to the Jibboo quickly became the favorite. I'm sure this is because he's realized that by making up 3 or 4 verses of song, he can delay his bedtime by a precious 5 minutes, but I don't mind. At the end of the day, there is nothing sweeter than hearing my son's high pitched voice belting out songs to the imaginary Jibboo.
It makes bedtime stories so much better than I ever imagined they would be. So today, I say a heartfelt thank you to Dr. Seuess...
