Zach and I have been reading to Kye since he was born. I’ve always been told the importance of reading to your baby plus I enjoy the bonding time together! Well all that reading is already paying off!
While in Melbourne last month Kye started “reading” on his own. Zach was reading him a story and he was holding a board book while listening to Daddy when he started grunting. He never stopped! He grunted through Zach’s entire story!!! Here’s a video of the first time he became a reader 🙂
After that we wondered if it was just him making noises and it seemed like he was reading or if he was, in fact, trying to read. We put it to the test and Zach went on the back porch with him and read to him some more and yup, he did it again! Here’s another video!
Doesn’t he look just like his Daddy in this picture???
After our discovery I think Zach, Mom, and I spent the rest of the weekend laughing and watching Kye read his book! He loved it! I put toys on the floor with him and had the book on the coffee table but as soon as he saw that book he started crying and reaching for it and wouldn’t be happy until he had it. He chose to play with that over every toy and he literally “read” for an hour. How does his little throat not get sore???
Reading to his friend, the Count!
Making sure his student is paying attention:
Since that weekend reading has been Kye’s favorite thing and that little board book is his favorite book. What’s so funny is that it’s a Baby Einstein book and Zach was super anti-Baby Einstein for the longest time haha!!! I guess he’ll have to get over that huh??? Here’s a video of him reading all by himself!
He prefers reading laying on his back which is cute because it’s how Zach and I always ready to him so we can be together and show him the pictures. He also loves the touch and feel part of the book and his favorite page is the one with the porcupine!He will feel those little “spikes” over and over again while reading that page.
I’ve decided just to always give him the same book to read because he’s really done some pretty good damage to it already and I don’t want ALL his board books getting ripped to shreds! However, Mom sent him a book about Halloween which is adorable because it’s his only Halloween thing 🙂 I’ve let him have that one too and he likes it! It has a little cut out which is very helpful for him to hold on to it! Here’s a video of him reading the book from Gramma (just for you Mom!)
I LOVE Kye’s new favorite hobby and it makes me feel so good as a Mom! Seeing him loving to read so much shows me that I’ve done a good job instilling a love of reading in my child. Isn’t that something every Mom strives for? I hope as he gets older the grunts will eventually become words and then he’ll actually start reading for real! It’s so fun to watch him enjoy the book and so funny how upset he gets if you take it away. Whenever he’s fussy I KNOW the one thing that will make it better 🙂 And it’s funny because it’s the first thing that Zach and I have been like “watch this!” when people come over haha it’s like a little trick or something!
The only “negative” of this new little trick is that it doesn’t just apply to Kye’s books, he wants to read ALL books. His non-board books, our books, church books!!! Can be tough when someone is holding a song book during services for sure! It’s also made it harder for us to read to him and we’ve just had to adjust by letting him hold his board book while we read and keep on reading over his loud grunts. Zach’s also had to stop reading to him before he goes to bed at night because it gets him waaaaay too hyped up!
When we got home from Cancun I was unpacking all his stuff and had a stack of things in the closet to put away. I was in the process of hanging the clothes and had him in the middle of the room with a bunch of toys. Well in my stack were the paper back books we took with us on the trip to read to him. I left the room for a few minutes and when I came back he had left his toys and had rolled/scooted all the way to the closet and was laying on his tummy in the pile of books. I watched him without interrupting and he picked out a book (Jesse Bear Jesse Bear What Will You Wear?) and then rolled onto his back and started reading it!!! So cute and it’s really one of the first things that I KNOW for sure is not an “every baby does this” kind of thing. It’s something that is special to Kye and that makes it more special to me 🙂 Unlike the rest of his annoying noises I hope this one lasts a long time!!!
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for a little while, we had to eliminate night time books too, b/c they got Stevie so pumped, now we read them again at night and b4 nap time, and she is ok to fall asleep afterward 🙂
I've been reading to Damian since he was born and he loves to read. He is always bringing me books and asking for me to read it to him or sitting and "reading" it himself. I think it is great for them to like books. D gets so excited whenever we read together.