for the love of reading

When we were pregnant the first time around, my friend Katie bought us a bunch of Max Lucado books for the baby. Out of those books, Anthony read If Only I had a Green Nose just about every night to my belly. When Sofia arrived we continued reading this book to her and now that she can choose books for us to read to her, she will still grab this very one.

With the second pregnancy, we didn't read directly to my belly anymore figuring the ton of reading we did with Sofia on a daily basis would suffice. This way, in our minds, we figured that we started out reading to both kids long before the second actually arrived.

Now that Olivia is here, we each have a bedtime routine every night. Anthony goes upstairs with Sofia and they read anything from Goodnight Moon to one of the Dr. Seuss books that Zia Paola bought for her to her latest favorite, SkippyJon Jones that Anthony picked up at the bookstore (the author is from Philadelphia).

I have Olivia in our bedroom and have been reading Guess How Much I Love You to her every night before going to sleep. Even earlier than 3 months you could tell that Olivia was enjoying this time. Now she's more animated and it's amazing to watch her as I'm reading (I've got it memorized at this point) and to see her notice that I'm turning pages and kissing her at the same points in the story. I can see that some nights when we lay down to read and she's a little fussy, as soon as I put the book up in front of her and start reading, she calms down within seconds.

While I am certain that the girls will have different tastes when it comes to some things, I am hoping that they both have the same love of reading. It's something that both Anthony and I have loved sharing with them and that we will continue to look forward to as they get older.