Raising a Reader

Yesterday I had a Proud Mommy Moment. Lana was sitting on the floor, various toys scattered around her. She grabbed a book, opened it and ran her pointed index finger across the page, babbling happily to herself the whole time. Here was my girl, "reading" and being absolutely adorable in the process.

 

Now I know that Lana is a very special little girl, but I'm sure she can't be classified as gifted quite yet. I know she's not really reading and at 10 months old, I know she's developmentally not ready for pretend play, but she has been around books enough, and read to consistantly enough to know that when you open a book, you say words.

 

I so very much want Lana to grow up to be a reader. I want her to have a love for the written word as well as a desire to learn and enjoy everything that reading will give her. I don't want her to think of reading as a chore or something that must be done, on the contrary, I want it to be a joy. I want reading to be as much a part of her life as playing or eating or sleeping.

 

Right now, Lana gets read to every day, sometimes multiple times per day. She sees us read books and magazines and the newspaper on a regular basis. She goes to the library for story time. I think we're doing everything right to develop her into an avid reader, right?

 

Those of you who have been doing the Mommy thing for a while, are your kids readers? How'd that happen? What worked? What didn't work?
Thanks for sharing.

Care for a cup of tea?

Well, if you did last weekend, the annual Ladies Victorian Tea was certainly the place to be. Once again, my Mum came up from Oregon and we decorated and hosted a table. All the tables were lovely. Some very simple and elegant, others quite ornate.

 

There was also a silent auction to benefit Care Net of the Palouse, a local crisis pregnancy center. Bidding got intense, but both Mum and I won baskets. Mine is for spa treatments and I'm so excited to use them.

While Lana did not join us at our tea table, she did have a fun time playing with the youth pastor in the church nursery. But a post wouldn't be complete without a cute picture, so here's one of our latest adventures in eating. I think this is a mix of green peas and peaches.

 

"Helping" in the kitchen

Sure. If by "helping" you mean banging on a pot with a wooden spoon.

She's a cute little helper and fairly easy to entertain.

Lana's Weekend Update

Thank you Uncle Kasey and Aunt Christina for my fluffy bunny ears. I think they're really funny to wear and I especially like to eat them.

 

 

I also like the little toys you sent me. The hair bows are really pretty, even though I can't wear them yet. Oh, and Daddy says thank you for the treats. Yeah, they won't let me eat chocolate yet. Sometimes my Mama and Daddy can be so mean!

Two of my cousins, Sadie and Allison, stayed at our house for a couple of days last week. They played with me lots and tickled me and sang me silly songs.

 

Sadie sang me a song about having ants in my pants and I thought it was so funny and I laughed and laughed.

 

Allison played with me on the floor and tried to get me to crawl. Sorry Allison, I don't want to crawl yet. Rolling works well for me, thank you very much.

Spring Break

Lana's daycare is on Spring Break this week, so I took off the latter half of the week. It's been nice being home and getting some things chacked off my to-do list. One project that's been bugging me for a while is window coverings, especially in the guest room. I;m happy to report that task is officially done. Here's a fun before and after:

 

Yesterday Lana was supposed to be taking a nap. Instead, I walked in to check on her and saw this:

 

Yeah, she's so stinkin' cute. I couldn't be mad either.