Book Baby

Tessa is going through a book phase.  Well, I hope it is not a phase at all but a lifetime love of reading and learning like I have!  But I will just focus on the present.  Right now she loves to look at, carry around, and listen to books.  Every morning, she goes right to the little cupboard doors that hold books in the living room and empties both of them all over the floor and proceeds to spread them all over the house throughout the day.  They are under the couch, in the kitchen and everywhere else.  She has a small book in the car and taking it away from her is a fight.  She clutches it at yells "book book boooook!" when I take it away from her.  She can always be found in the reading nook at the Y when I pick her up and removing her from their is usually a fight.  And at home she is always carrying a book around and I am always on guard in case a dense little board book is launched at me followed by a little maniac toddler clawing her way into my lap. 

 

She looooooves this one...It is "Old McDonald" in book form and you count the animals on each page by popping a little plastic bubble.  Taking her away from it to put her in her room for a nap or bedtime is a very dramatic separation.  Imagine outstretched arms, shrieking and flailing. 

 

The books are paying off because she is learning new words every day.  This morning she said "doctor" for the first time and this week she has said flower, star, and tractor to name a few.  It's cute.  I am going to enjoy these early days of language.  By early days, I mean the time between when a child starts saying words and when they first repeat some obnoxious or unflattering phrase like a little parrot.  Ben's favorite was "come on!!" when he was feeling threatened or exasperated.   Imagine carrying him to bed and him wailing, "come onnnnnn!"  Hmmmm I can't imagine where he heard that!