Our little reader

This week has been a biggie for Theo, as most of the birthday presents we bought for him finally arrived from Amazon. He's pretty happy about them, although he never plays with any of them very long; he's not Mr. Attention Span.

Yesterday, some new board booksarrived and I'm thrilled to say ... I think he's happier about the books than the shape sorter or puzzles or the Leapfrog Table.

For the longest time, books were not interesting to him at all. At best, he'd sit still while I read and not reach out and slam the book shut; at worst, they were chew toys (We need a replacement "Moo Moo Brown Cow," as the original has been halved in size).

For the longest time, I was afraid maybe we weren't reading to him enough. Sometimes a day or two would pass without me sitting down with him and a book (Go ahead; call Children & Families and the goon squad from Parenting Magazine to have me put down for neglect). When he's not interested in the book or even in being held, forcing him to stay in one place was a trial.

Then, suddenly in the past month...a light has clicked on. I sit down with "Big Red Barn" or "Goodnight Moon" and read the first few words, and I get one of my guaranteed super-cute Theo smiles for the day, right up there with waking up in the morning. We still don't finish the book half the time, but at least it's some positive feedback.

Now, when we've left him to play alone for a while, I don't resign myself to finding pieces of chewed-up book; again and again I've looked across the kitchen to see him sitting down with one of his books in his lap, turning through the pages one by one. The book is usually upside down, but that's just fine with me for now.

Suddenly reading with him is a time we both seem to look forward to, instead of a required chore replacing something we'd both rather be doing. Hopefully he keeps up with a love of books longer than his old man has...

Of course, he comes by it honestly.