They don’t have a spot in the baby books for “sat to listen to a whole chapter book in one sitting” but I know when JediBoy first did that. It was the summer he turned 3, and he was fascinated by all things Egyptian. I had heard about those Magic Tree House books and when we were at the bookstore one night I pulled #3 Mummies in the Morning off the shelf to glance through it. JediBoy (ThothBoy, back then) demanded that I read it to him because of the picture on the cover. I sat in one of those little green uncomfortable chairs by the train table and started reading, thinking how I’d like to see how much he would sit for. If he sat for a chapter or two at a time, I figured, I’d buy the book.
45 minutes later, I finished the book, and he said, “Again? Read it again, Momma?”
I needed a spot in his baby book for that.
Last night we had another baby book moment. I had taken JediBoy shopping in the afternoon, to pick up pictures from the portrait studio, and we left poor sick PisecoDad and cranky BabyGirl home to nap. At one store, we found three of the Magic Tree House books we didn’t own, marked down.
When we climbed in bed at 8:30, JediBoy had #23 Twister on Tuesday with him. I snuggled up with him as he read aloud the prologue and first chapter, helping him with the words prairie, pioneer and native. Then PisecoDad came up and I told JediBoy he could keep looking at the book as long as he liked, but we were going to get ready for bed ourselves.
An hour later, he finished the book. The grin on his face made me think of Ramona: “I can’t believe I read the whole thing!”
It was the first time he’d read a chapter book on his own. Not one chapter at a time aloud to me, or trading chapters or pages with me, but curled up in bed, reading silently to himself (except when he hit a hard word and had to sound it out aloud!). Such a warm and cozy moment that will stay forever in my heart even though… there’s no spot in the baby book for that.
What are your baby book moments?
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