100th Post “Raise a Reader”

Wow.  This is actually my hundredth post.  About a year ago I was skimming through my cousin’s blog (that I used to be terrible at following but times have changed) and I read her 100th post and thought… “I wonder if that's even possible for me”.  I guess this is what happens when you live about 700 miles from the town you grew up in.  You have much more of a need to connect and have your words out there in the stratosphere.  Especially since on average I only get to talk to 3 adults a week and the other two are on Sundays.

One thing that has really been my salvation—really my whole life—has been reading.  I love the smell of books (especially old books), I love holding books, I love reading books.  I love how I feel about myself when I read books…that I am a whole person.  I really don’t know exactly why I feel that way but I do.

When we moved here we had 7 bookcases stuffed full of books.  These lovely bookcases and their boxes of accompanying books are the exact reason we had to get the biggest moving truck available even though we were told the other truck should accommodate a 2-3 bedroom house.  Whoever was figuring out that statistic wasn’t a reader…at least to the extent that Jared and I are combined.

The first thing we ever bought for our unborn (now 4-year-old) son was a nice pile of cardboard books.  I didn’t think anything of it until one day about three months before the baby was born when Christian decided he needed to go through his books and give some to the baby.  I thought it was the sweetest gesture.  Now if her books end up back into his room by mistake he is very concerned that she have her own books.

Books were pretty much the only thing I was able to spend time on for a few months last summer as I spent many morning and sometimes days in bed.  I started reading chapter books for children with Christian during that time and it really increased our already strong bond.

When I first had Christian, I spent literally hours reading while holding him.  I also would read to him whenever he got anxious and this seemed to calm him down.  Now that I have Vivian she loves to look at my books and just stare as I read to myself.

As time has gone on, one of the biggest traditions we have is to read before naps and bedtime.  This originally developed so that Christian would calm down enough to actually take a nap and because I, myself, can not calm down enough to stop thinking and sleep without reading first.  Vivian has apparently caught on because before every nap, she fusses and refuses to sleep unless we look at a book together.

It has always amazed me when I have taken education classes and such that there are people who don’t like to read, or simply don’t take the time.  Honestly, reading for me is almost like running water.  I can survive without but it’s really not as much fun.  During my years in college, I still had to have a “fun book” even if it took a while to read.  One of the best things I did for myself was to listen to books on tape in the car as I commuted back and forth from school, work, or home.  It gave me something to refresh myself.

I am so grateful that my two children love to read.  But I think that’s more of a nurture thing than a nature thing.  They see me read and how happy it makes me and they want to experience that too.

  Don’t you love Vivian’s expression in this one…Christian’s is funny too but he’s showing how exhausted he is!