Library

Todd thought I was crazy when I packed so many books that they literally consumed 1/3 our total weight for coming here. He reads and forgets the story within a week, but I knew that if we ever had a kid like me, the actual book is valuable, not just the story- therefore, I packed them. In recent months, Em's favorite 'toy' to play with has become a small two-self side table that I salvaged from missionary storage. It was disgustingly dirty, but it cleaned up nicely after some soap, water and wood polish. I filled it with Em's board books (those cardboard ones)... or rather the ones that I've decided if they don't make it into her adulthood, I'll be okay with that (there are a few stashed just for bed times and nap times).

She LOVES

this bookshelf and spends at least half her play time taking books out, carrying them around the house, or (my favorite) crawling into the rocking chair her Great Grampy made for her and 'reading' them. She loves to bring them to me and sit in my lap. She's figured out how to help turn pages and when words are used she knows (like kiss) she'll do that action (she's so smart; she gets it from her father!!!). Anyways, we've been working on putting books back into the shelf, but she seems to want to just have them all over the floor so she can organize and reorganize them. It's quite the process and yesterday, I was able to catch her in action (she usually yells at me for interrupting her time). Right now, she has three favorite books (much to my frustration) and she reads them, reads them to me, and has me read them to her (each mind you) no less than 2 dozen times a day. Yeah for "Whose Coming to Our House," "Baby Colors," and "If Only I Had a Green Nose." I guess it could be worse... two of the three have great themes, so that's nice, and the third one is helping us learn our colors. Maybe today she'll pick a new one, but even if she doesn't, I still love her crawling into my ever-shrinking lap and wanting to be read to. Those are special moments!