I purchased two children’s books for my little T-Rex a few days ago and I have to say that I scored big time!
His favorite of the two is a sound board book called, I love to laugh! It’s Written by Karen Farmer and Illustrated by Gary Currant. Each page has interactive games that parent and child can enjoy together. But the most fun thing about this book is that your child has the option of pressing the giggle button (the sound of children’s laughter) before turning each page. T-Rex hasn’t grown tired of pressing the giggle button yet and I highly recommend it!
The other purchase was a board book written by Bernadette Rossetti-Shustak and illustrated by Caroline Jayne Church called I Love You Through and through. It’s a book about how much we love our children. I love the illustrations in this book. There large and colorful. It’s amazing how the illustrations grab and hold T-Rex’s attention. This book is a must if you have a little one in the 12 to 18 month old range.
I find great pleasure in reading to T-Rex. It’s my favorite activity that we do together…but with any 14 month old some reading challenges are to be expected. His attention span is short. Too darn short! If I haven’t picked out a book that will grab and hold his attention, it’s game over. He begins to wiggle out of my lap and onto the floor, in search of something a lot more interesting than me and the boring book I attempted to read to him.
So when I find a book that he loves, it down right excites me! This means that his little body will stay still…at least for a little while as I turn from page to page.
Something that I began doing about 5 months ago to help him to sit longer is, rather than actually reading the entire text on the page; I will describe and bring specific things to his attention. For example, our reading adventure sounds similar to this….T-Rex look at the big purple elephant with his short tale, or, what a pretty Green apple that is….oh look T- Rex, there’s a green caterpillar living on the inside of the apple. I of course have to read it with great enthusiasm or it’s just not enjoyable to him. All of this equals making it to the end of a book. And making it to the end of a book is truly an accomplishment!
With anything all good things come to an end. In time these books will begin to collect dust just like the rest of the books in his collection. My silly made up words will grow dull and the illustrations will go dim and T-Rex will have no interest in them any more. I’ll retire these two books onto a shelf and he will forget about them. As I retire book after book, I noticed that each book that takes its place is bigger, brighter and more interesting. As days and months go by, he too becomes bigger, brighter and more interesting. His life reminds me of the retired books on the shelf. Pieces of him sitting there intertwined into something he once loved. You can look at his collection and see growth and change, just as I can look at him and see growth and change. In just a minute, he will no longer want to sit on my lap as I turn from page to page with my forced enthusiastic voice making up the words that has always held his attention. I will no longer be able to pick books out for him. He will choose for himself. A lump will form in my throat the day he closes his bedroom door behind him and he picks up his very first book and begins to read it himself. The book retiring, T-Rex changing, it’s going to fast for me.
For right now, today, I’m enough, and the books that I choose for him are enough. If only it would always be enough. I can only dream….
