A Month of Gratitude: Day 14

I am grateful for our public library system.

I have loved books my entire life. I am trying to instill a love of book in Milo too. It seems to be working. The library is such a big part of that task because it would be silly to buy every book we read to the boy. Some of the books we check out are big hits -- big enough that we do end up buying him the book. Some are huge flops and only get read once before being returned. We have discovered new authors and rediscovered books that the S.O. and I loved as kids. We have learned that Milo especially likes books about dinosaurs, aliens, robots and any kind of transportation. (He's such a boy!)

Without the library, we would probably be stuck reading the same books over and over and over. I think even a 2-year-old gets tired of hearing how a dinosaur loves his dog after a while. Or, we would have invested a small fortune in buying books -- many that would just collect dust. The same goes for the S.O. and me. We check out at least a couple books each every month, some enjoyed, some returned unread.

We often take the library for granted but I really am grateful for it.

Reading, 'Riting and What not

I signed Milo up for our library's summer reading program. The baby/toddler portion of it involves me (or Milo's daddy) reading to him and doing other activities. I kind of feel like I'm cheating a little because we already read to Milo every day -- at least a couple times and at least a couple books. So, he's going to get prizes for doing the things we do anyway.

I love to read and I hope I pass that love to Milo. He enjoys our story times so I think he'll grow up as a reader. I know much of that is up to the S.O. and me. Milo needs to see us reading -- and enjoying -- books. He needs to know the importance of reading and understand the joy and knowledge it can bring.

He has a few favorites right now: Anything by Sandra Boynton (especially "The Belly Button Book" and "Blue Hat, Green Hat"), "How Do Dinosaurs Say Goodnight" by Jane Yolen and "Llama Llama Home With Mama" by Anna Dewdney. He especially enjoys the rhythm and rhyme of these particular stories. He also enjoys how silly Mommy can get while reading a silly book. And I enjoy reading them to him. And that's pretty important too.