I Hope He Loves Reading

Last weekend we went to a few used bookstores.  I have a project in mind and the boys were good enough to tag along on my scavenger hunt.  Of course we took pictures.  Lots and lots of pictures. 

One of my favorite parts of the day is story time.  I live for those minutes when M sits all cozied up on my lap and we read every book on the shelf three or four times.  He likes to turn the pages.  And he is learning to identify certain pictures when I ask him to point to them.  He is such a smart boy! 

He still doesn’t have much patience for books without a lot of noises.  But luckily for M, I’m pretty talented at sound effects.  I like that he has favorite books.  Right now, his favorites are all about puppies, “Where’s the Bone?” and his doggie pop up book. 

I have always loved reading.  My parents always encouraged us to read and provided us with lots of books.  Books were often birthday or Christmas presents.  We also often went to the library, especially during the summer.  Before we would go on road trips, we would go to the library and check out a huge stack of books.  We would then read through the entire stack over the eight to ten hours we were on the road.  And we LOVED it.  I honestly was never the least bit bothered by long car rides.  I was more than content to have an excuse to read ALL DAY LONG.  I don’t think there are many things more luxurious as having a few hours to yourself to get lost in a good book. 

Growing up, I almost always finished a book in one sitting.  I would get to sucked into the story that I would not be able to put the book down until I had read the entire thing.  I can’t even begin to count the number of times I ended up reading pretty much all night long.  I don’t have such extended amounts of time to read now, but I still read for fun pretty much every night before bed.  And there are still, to this day, lots of times that I stay up reading WAY past my bedtime. 

It’s fun to share something that has brought me so much joy over the years with my little guy.  I love that reading is something we have been able to do together for his whole life.  It’s not an experience that has to wait for him to get bigger (like sports, for example).  

It will be exciting to see what kinds of hobbies and interests M will develop as he gets older.  And if he doesn’t love reading like I do, that’s okay.  We will work hard to help him learn to be very good at it, because education is important.  However, if there are other things that he likes more, that’s fine too.  

But I am excited to share all of my favorite books with him.  I’m excited to stay up way past our bedtimes because we’re reading a good book together that we can’t bear to put down.  I’m excited to let him pick out a brand new book when he brings a book order form home from school.  I’m excited to go to the library and let him pick out 20 books at a time.  Because I have a feeling he’s going to love reading too.