book worm

Now that I'm feeling better and no longer have an excuse to have the TV raise my son, I've been turning it off and reading to Alex again.  I never really stopped reading to him all together, but we'd only read one or two board books and then I'd collapse in a heap on the couch and turn on another episode of Mythbusters.  This was never even close to enough reading for Alex.  Kid LOVES him some books.  He could very easily sit on the couch all day and have me read the same Tonka Town books to him for hours on end.  He's also very much into an odd little picture book called "Olson's meat pies" which I am required to read at nap time every day.   

Even though we've got a bookshelf full of books, we've read each and every one of them about 100 times each.  At least.  I can recite "Where the Wild Things Are" by memory as well as most of the "Frog and Toad Together" stories.  Honestly, I'm bored out of my mind.  Sometimes I'll try to make up a story as Alex turns the pages in his books, but he knows the stories too, and as soon as he catches on that I'm making it up, he'll turn to me and say "No.  No, no, no!" 

Yesterday we were at the library with some friends to see a puppet show.  After the show, my friend took her two boys to pick out some books from the children's section.   I don't know why it never occurred to me before, but it was like a whole new world opened up for me.  Here was an almost endless supply of new books to read.  I can just check them out!  Why, it's brilliant!  I check out books for myself almost on a weekly basis, how it never occurred to me to go into the Children's section is beyond me.  Alex indiscriminately picked out 10 books.  He was so overwhelmed with the idea that he could just grab whatever book he wanted, he began just flinging them on the floor into a pile.  I took our ten books to a table and had him pick out four to bring home.  We settled on a book about a spider, a book about a sheep, a book about Hanukkah and a Dr Seuss book about an elephant. 

Alex flipped through his books all the way home and we immediately had to read them.  The spider and Hanukkah books were duds, we're still undecided on the sheep book, but the Dr Seuss book "Horton hatches the egg" is the clear winner and we've read it five times already.  We'll be going back today to get some more Dr Seuss books. 

The only problem is if he falls in love with a particular book, I'll really have to do some convincing to get him to return it.  If there's one thing my kid can be counted on it's picking something to obsess about.  Even though we have these great new books, I had to read about Olson and his damned meat pies again last night.