Running from the Law: Read To Me

Thursday, October 8, 2015

Read To Me

The other day, I went in to get Mim up from her nap and found that she had surprisingly just fallen back to sleep, after being up and playing in her crib minutes ago.  I quietly ran down and grabbed my camera and snapped one adorable sleeping picture before her eyes popped back open.  I'm such a sucker for cute baby sleeping photos, but I also live in fear of waking my little sleeping beauties up, so I never take photos in their rooms while they sleep.  
This child always wakes in the best mood.  She's happy and sweet and ready to snuggle in the chair and read books together.  Unlike her brother (and mother), who takes a while to get it together and snap out of that funk of being awake, this little nugget happily plays in her crib snuggling her kitty and listening to the music from her little fish tank.  She sings and smiles and squeals as she plays until someone comes and gets her up.  She is such a delight.
I feel like she's in midst of the most magical age right now.  She's walking and talking and exploring on her own, but she's still so baby-like and snuggly.  She loves being held just as much as she loves running away from me.  She is so fearless these days, chasing after her big brother and insisting on doing so much on her own.  She loves swings and slides - the bigger, higher, faster, the better.  She eats nonstop...basically any food you put in front of her.  She's eating less paper these days, but more dirt and mulch.  She has the sweetest jibber-jabber and talks nonstop all day with incredible authority and conviction, yet I have no idea what she's saying.  She knows quite a few signs and has amazing manners for a baby.  She has the sweetest smile, the brightest eyes and the most adorable little blonde curls.  
One of her favorite things to do right now is sit in my lap (or anyone's lap, really) and read books. She LOVES books!  Actually, it doesn't seem to matter which book we read or whether it's a book at all.  Together, we've read board books, magazines, newspapers, catalogs, bills, flyers and birthday cards.  Whatever she can find with words on it, she brings to me and insists on sitting in my lap and reading it.  I think mainly she just loves to be held, read to and snuggled.  It reminds me of a quote I once heard that went something like, "reading to a child before they can even understand words teaches them to associate books with love and affection."  I think that's exactly what we're doing.  
Of course, she has her favorites.  Dear Zoo is a big hit at our house, both because of the flaps to open and she gets to growl like a lion. We also love Hand Hand Fingers Thumb, But Not The Hippopotamus, Peek-a-Who?, anything with Spot, Goodnight Moon, Goodnight Gorilla, I Love You Through and Through, Olivia and Moo Baa La La La.  Any time there's an animal on the page, she has to hug or kiss it.  It takes forever to get through a book, but it's so worth it.  I just can't get enough of her these days.  This age really is magical. 
What's your child's favorite book right now?

25 comments:

  1. she is so cute!!! sophie loves sitting in my lap now too. she'll sit in my lap for hours okay not really be at least 20 minutes. I love the stage sophies at too :) they're at such an adorable stage.

    liz @ sundays with sophie

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  2. These are such great pictures Sarah. So sweet. She is a doll.

    Avery is really liking reading right now too. Unfortunately a lot of our books are in storage right now until we can get into our new house. I did just get a book for Jackson to "read" to her though. It's all pictures, "100 First Words". She loves pointing to each object and we say what each object is. :-) I thought it would be fun for Jackson to be able to read to her so we got this book. It's been a hit so far.

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  3. She is so cute. Love the picture of her sleeping and I love the quote you shared. Nicklas loves Pete the Cat books and any book that has a truck in it. I love reading and snuggling with him!

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  4. Such cute photos! I was always scared of taking pictures of noah sleeping for the same reason! I never wanted to open the curtains to let enough light in to make them any good! I remember loving that age!

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  5. You always capture the best pictures of your sweet little loves! Mim is just precious and seems to have the sweetest little soul. Mason is book obsessed! Right now he's into all of the Halloween books; A Halloween Scare in Texas, 10 Timid Ghosts, and Ghosts go Haunting.

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  6. Mim is just a month and a half (maybe 2?) than Brielana and they enjoy so many of rhe same things! Pure magic. Reading is a favorite activity in our house and I love instilling that love of the written word at an early age. Brielana really likes the Les Petits Fairytales right now (the illustrations are adorable) and whatever her big sister is reading is an instant favorite ;) Mim is such a cutie!

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  7. I love the magic of children! My little guy loves his Bible Story's For Boys book, Jake the Pirate, and peek-a-who books most right now. Mim's little curls kill me! So cute!! Right when they wake up is one of my favorite times of the day.

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  8. She is SO CUTE!!! Louise is the same...happy and bubbly as soon as she wakes up. Cam, on the other hand, needs a few minutes...we call him our teenager! Haha ADORABLE pictures, as always!

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  9. This is the sweetest!! Matthew loves books at 11 months which is such a change because Miller hated sitting still for stories at that age and really didn't start liking books until close to 18 months. Not that he didn't like books, he didn't like sitting still. I'm sure you can relate ;)

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  10. Oh my goodness, she's precious! I just love that she's so into books! What a little pumpkin. :-)

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  11. Beautiful photos! Lucky you for getting a sleeping shot!!!

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  12. Emmy wakes up so happy too! Cam does if he has time to truly wake up but if I go in too quick it's no good. We read books all the time at our house. Emmy doesn't sit through books nearly as well as Cam always has, but she definitely has her favorites. Snuggle Puppy being one of them. Dear Zoo is a fav at our house too. Love her room!! I am afraid of taking pictures of mine while sleeping too. Ha ha

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  13. i feel like this post could have been written about my Craft, with how fun this age is and how sweet he is. He is ALL BOY but the sweetest child and loves to read, you listed some of our favorites as well. If only his big sister was as sweet to him as he is to her! :-) Mim is such a doll, I know you are all so in love!

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  14. Gah, so many amazing photos! I love her!!! I hope Finn has Liam's love for books.

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  15. This is so sweet! I love that quote about reading and affection. It's definitely a great activity!!

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  16. ugh. could she GET ANY CUTER. and those curls?! i want her.

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  17. Gah! Mim is so stinkin' adorable.
    Have you read Barnyard Dance by Sandra Boynton? That's a real crowd pleaser in our home.

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  18. I can't get over how adorable she always is! Jude is finally sitting still longer than 2 seconds and we can almost get through 3 pages of a book now! But he has started kissing things on his book, most notably the tractors and the diggers... #allboy

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  19. What a lil sweetheart with the blonde curls. :) I wish that I too could wake up happy but, sadly, I do not. I'm pretty cranky. Ha, ha!

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  20. What a sweet post and adorable pictures!
    I like when you talked about reading anything and everything. I kid you not, Linnea loves reading Time magazine. My parents watch her on Fridays, and she and my dad "read" through Time every week. He obviously doesn't read it, but it's been a good lesson in learning about feelings, countries/events around the globe, etc.

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  21. GAH! She is so cute! And I agree, this is such a perfect age!

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  22. These pictures are just PRECIOUS, I love those sweet smiles/snuggles when they just wake up. As a young adult, I never was a HUGE reading fan, but since kids, cuddling with them and a book is one of my favorite things..!! Tyson has a new found love for this 'big brother' book, and Harp is still learning her way around books..

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  23. My goodness!! She is adorable! Those pictures in the crib with her name in the background are just perfect. All of them are, actually.

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  24. My goodness!! She is adorable! Those pictures of her in the crib with her name in the background are perfect. All of them are so good...I think you could go pro! ;)

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  25. Aww, sweet little Mim! Even better that you happened to snap sleeping photos when her pacifier matches her pjs. Too cute! The interactive baby stage is definitely one of my favorites. I love jibberish and snuggles. And any book with animal sounds was a fave for Ez at that age too.

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