Dear Kids,
I have read to you almost every night since you were tiny. I remember reading Dr. Seuss’s “Horton Hears a Who” to Marshall when he was just a baby. Sometimes he would even listen. And I remember how Livia wouldn’t sit still for books at all when she was a young toddler. It took a long time to get her interested in reading, but the struggle paid off. Now she loves books, too.
Think about that for a minute. There are 365 days per year. So, since we started when you were so young, we must have read together more than a thousand times! Isn’t that amazing?
Okay, sure. I haven’t read to you every single night. Your father sometimes reads to you. And there have been a handful of nights when we got home too late to read. There have also been times when one of you was being so naughty that we punished you by taking away your book. Yes, it’s an awful punishment, but we use it, because it works. You hate having your nightly book taken away! But even on those nights, unless your behavior has been supremely bad, you still get to listen to your sibling’s book.
We used to read just one book per night. When Livia got old enough to choose a book for herself, it became two. Sometimes I pick my own book to read (there are some favorites of mine that are not favorites of yours; I make sure those books get read from time to time). Also, the stuffed animals occasionally request a book. If I’m in a good mood, I’ll read to them, too.
More recently, Marshall was given a homework assignment of reading for 15 minutes every night. So now he reads a third book to us. His favorite books to read to us include “Secret Pizza Party” by Adam Rubin, “Sam & Dave Dig a Hole” by Mac Barnett, and the pigeon books by Mo Willems. One time he read “Don’t Let the Pigeon Stay up Late” in echo-talk (“Don’t-don’t let-let the-the pigeon-pigeon . . . ). Yeah, the whole book. I let him, too, because it was good for him.
Livia doesn’t like being left out of anything and will sometimes ask to read a book to us, too. She can’t really read yet, but she has memorized parts of books. She usually lets me help her with the parts that she doesn’t remember.
Reading to you can be a labor of love. Oh, how I suffer when you choose books that I dislike, especially when you want to hear them every night for weeks! Even delightful books, like those by Dr. Seuss, are a chore if I’m tired. And then there are times when you won’t sit still, and other times when you fight over who gets to sit in my lap (alas, you can’t both fit anymore). And reading aloud is not so much fun when I’m sick and can barely squeak the words past my sore throat.
But most of the time reading to you is wonderful. Having one of you sitting snugly in my lap, and with both of you listening intently, I am the star. The show is anything from the brief-but-cute “Peek-a-Who” by Nina Laden to several pages of J.K. Rowling’s “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.” I hope that you will remember at least some of the great times we’ve shared this way.
Now, with Marshall capable of reading on his own, and Livia on the cusp of reading, I am starting to see, looming in the future, an end to our bedtime reading. If we’re lucky, the longer-format books, like the Harry Potter series, will save this tradition for us longer than it might otherwise last. Reading alone is great, but reading together is a rare pleasure, one that we might never experience again later in life. There are so many books that we could explore together. I hope you will want to read with me for years to come.
Love,
Mom
