July 25, 2010
What I expected
Harriet (aged 14 months) likes teacups, Miffy, and books, and so my job here is basically done. And though she’s changing all the time (starting to walk, starting to talk!), her recent engagement with books has been particularly fascinating. She’s started to make real connections between the books we read and the actual world, pointing out dogs within pages as she does on the sidewalk. When we pull out Hand Hand Finger Thumb, she goes to get her own drum off her shelf so she can play along with the monkeys. We’re rereading The House at Pooh Corner at the moment, and she points up at her mobile when she hears Pooh’s or Piglet’s name. When we read Kisses Kisses Baby-O by Sheree Fitch, and get to the “slurpy, burpy” page, she starts pointing to her breastfeeding pillow. When we read Ten Little Fingers, Ten Little Toes, she shows us all the appropriate digits. Tonight when we read Goodnight Gorilla (on the occasion of a trip to the zoo) she went insane, but I think that was only because she was tired.
It’s all very exciting though, partly because there was once a time when Harriet was about as engaging as a wall. But mostly because I love books and she seems to like them too, and they’re such a wonderful thing for us to enjoy together. It’s the one of the few illusions I had pre-motherhood that has turned out exactly as I’d expected.
Watching my sons’ evolving connection with books has been one of my favourite things about motherhood. I can remember the moment when I realized a connection had been made. I read Lost & Found to my eldest all the time, and when we got to the part when they were reunited, we would hug each other. One day, when he was still quite young (about 16months, I can remember the moment, but not his age!), he was ‘reading’ the book to himself. When he got to that page, he hugged the book. It killed me.
Now that he’s 4 and my younger one is 2, they are on a huge Beatrix Potter kick and their make believe play is almost exclusively from Potter’s characters–Moppet and Mittens especially now. So much fun.
That is very cool. I’m waiting for my almost one year old (in a week!) to make that connection. I am ashamed to say that I don’t read to her nearly as much as I did to her older brother, but we do try to read a little every day. Or rather, I try, and she does her best to eat the book. I distinctly remember my son sitting quietly for many books at a time at this age, but Emma is just not into it yet.
I would just like to know when we lose the ability to sit (comfortably) like that on the floor…