I eat books for breakfast

I continue to be amazed by this young one's interest in reading. 

Wednesday, when the boys were home on their sixth snow day in five weeks, Tom pulled out the first Harry Potter book. 

A little over 24 hours later...

Mini-me

2 PM and he's choosing to read. :)

Bookworm

This is a pretty common sight in our house, even at 6:15 am. 

Rainy Sunday Morning

Back in mid-September, as we (finally) got a bit of rain, Novak snuggled in with me under a blanket in our recliner to read. 

45 minutes later...this is the pile of books we read. 

He loves books!

The saga continues...

Update: It's 5:45 pm and the only thing Nate has stopped reading for is to eat dinner and shower. He was even reading in the bathroom partially dressed...

An unexpected journey.

I'm sure every mom feels this way from time to time...my heart wants to explode with pride and love at the sight of this image.

Yes, he's reading The Hobbit. :). Reason #1 why I am so happy.

Reason #2? He's been in this chair for an hour now while his brothers rain chaos down around him.

I love this child.

First book

We've entered the phase of kindergarten where Nile gets to start bringing home books to read each night.

I'm so excited, this is his first "real" book to read!

I love this. More than you know.

Tom snapped this picture on the playground this morning. 

In Tom's words, "He chooses a book to read - the other boy is playing with his Nintendo DS."

My heart is soaring - I love this child.

Welcome sight

I'll never get tired of seeing this in our house...

The curse of the bologna sandwich

I'm so excited.

We have a reader.  A READER!  And he takes after his mama. :)

I took Nate and Nile to the library on Saturday to pick up some books, and convinced Nate to look at some chapter books.  I found a superhero series that I thought he would love:

This book is 138 pages, and 18 chapters.  Nate read the whole book in less than an hour and a half.  He read for 20 minutes last night before bed, then woke up this morning at 6:30 am and read the rest, before coming into our room at 7:15 to tell us he was finished.

I'll be honest, we didn't think he had read it all.  So I quizzed him on parts of the story.

Yeah, he read it all.

Now we're on a quest to find Book 2, which the Geneseo library doesn't have (I've requested it through inter-library loan).  For the life of me I will never understand why they have books 1, 3, 4, and 5 of a series and don't have number 2.

Nate also got two DC Comics chapter books that he read in an hour on Saturday.  I wasn't sure if he had actually read them either, but now I'm convinced.  He's just a speed reader like his mother.  I thought we'd at least have enough books for a week with those three.  Guess we need to go back to the library!

If my biggest problem is keeping him occupied with enough books, I will gladly drive him to every library to find books for him to read.

I am so excited right now. 

Sweetest. Picture. Ever.

Early riser

I want to be frustrated with Novak when he wakes us up at 5:15 am. But it's hard to stay mad at a little person who just wants to snuggle and read books.

At the library

And at first he didn't want to come...

Night owl

It's 6:30 on a Friday night.

Nate could not wait to get home from dinner because we had promised him he could stay up late.

Until 8:00.

And what was he so excited to stay up late doing?

Reading.

In bed.

Alone.

This may be my favorite picture of all time.

Bookworm

Novak loves to read.

I love to read to Novak. :)

charlie and the chocolate factory

I want my children to love reading. To love books. I want them to devour books, because that is what they are. Food for the soul. Nourishment for the brain.

For as long as I can remember, I have loved to read. The way the story has been told, my parents figured out I could read when, at the age of three, I walked into a room with a piece of mail and told my mom what it said on the envelope.  I was reading when I entered kindergarten.  When the rest of the kids were learning their letters, I was reading.  I recall summers spent filling up lines on the library's summer reading program sheets. I have a picture from one summer - having read the most books of any of the summer reading program kids, I got a certificate and they put a photo of me in the newspaper.

I still love to read. My favorite is science fiction, but I enjoy almost any type of book, as long as the topic is interesting.

I have long dreamed of the day that Nate would be able to pick up a book and read it, and thoroughly enjoy it.  I'll be honest, there was a part of me that hoped he would be like me, and learn to read before he entered school.  Sadly (for me only), he had no drive to read.  It's not that he didn't love books, because he loves to be read to.  But he wasn't interested in reading.  I knew he had the mental ability, but I hadn't been able to get him interested in learning how to read on his own.  That's why this past school year I was so excited watching him learn to read.  And now, one of my favorite things is to sit down with Nate and have him read me a book.

A few months ago, Nate asked me about one of the books I was reading.  Now, looking back, I can't remember which one it was.  But he was curious about it, since it didn't have any pictures.  I showed him  each page - full of words.  I explained to him how in my books, I don't need pictures because the words describe everything so that you can create your own pictures in your mind.  And then I read him a few paragraphs from the book so he could understand.  It was then that I think I started to see the light bulb come one, faintly.

When this summer started, I thought it would be a great idea to find a chapter book and read a little of it each night to Nate, instead of reading the kids' picture books that have filled our evenings for the last six years.  I wanted to share one that I loved as a child.  But I struggled to think of one.  Then, for Father's Day, we bought Tom the book Mr. Popper's Penguins - it had been Nate's idea to get it for Tom.  After seeing a preview for the recent movie, Tom said how much he loved the book as a child.  But, on the coffee table it sat.

Last week we were on a family vacation, and the house we rented had a DVD collection.  In the DVD collection was a copy of the "original" Charlie and the Chocolate Factory movie.  This was one of my favorite movies as a child.  One night, we curled up on the couch and watched it together.  Nate absolutely loved it.  And I loved watching him enjoy it.  Gramma told Nate how the story had been a book first.

And then it hit me.  This was the book.  This was the one that I would share with Nate (and Nile if he was interested).  We got home from vacation and that same day we got the book from the library.

Each night since then we have read a few chapters of the story.  Nate snuggles up next to me and I read to him.  He's enthralled.  He is rapt.  He's even asked me to read to him in the middle of the day, when usually he'd rather be playing.  Each night he can tell me exactly what chapter we are ready to read - and he can remember in great detail what happened in the previous chapters.

Already this is one of my very favorite "mom moments" of all time.  And we're only halfway through the book.  Plus, I think I may have convinced Nile to join us.  Tonight he sat with us as we read a few chapters, and he was just as engaged.

I feel like Violet Beauregarde - I'm so happy I could burst.

Budding Reader

Last week Nate's kindergarten class took a field trip to the library.  At the library, they found out that they could get their own library card when they were 5.  They also got to go "behind the scenes" and see what goes on at the library.  He thought this was pretty cool.

Nate came home and asked Tom if "mommy would take me to the library to get a library card?"

Um, like I had to think about this one.  Of course!  He was so excited.  He told me about how we would get him a card, and that he would get to pick out books, and we talked a lot about what type of books he wanted to get.

We were planning to go on Monday.  But Nile was sick, and Tom was out of town.  I didn't relish the thought of taking Nate to the library with a sick 4 year old, a fussy baby, and no backup parent.  So I promised him that we would go on Friday, and it would be just him and me.  So, fast forward to today.

This morning, Nate had (for the first time ever) a school friend come over for a playdate.  So, after Caleb left, Nate and I headed to the library.  So mature, Nate walks up to the checkout desk and, when the librarian asked if she could help us, asked:

"I was wondering if I could get my very own library card?"

So I filled out the paperwork, and she promptly created a library card.  While we waited, two girls who were waiting to check out a huge pile of insect books showed Nate where to find them.  As soon as we got his card (and a bookmark, and a sticker), we headed to the non-fiction area.  We picked up a few books on bugs and frogs, then headed over to the graphic novels, and then the "early reader" books.  Nate sat down at a table and went through the books, too excited to wait until we got home.

So we checked out his books (as well as two novels for me), and headed off to the grocery store before heading home.  He read all the way to the grocery store, and all the way home in the car.  And I should have taken a picture.  It was precious.  But what was more special to me was the question he asked me on the way to the car as we walked out of the library.

"Mom, can we come to the library every week?"
"Sure, Nate."  But we can't come when you're at school, so we will have to go on Saturdays."
"Okay, Mom.  Can we go to the library every Saturday?"

Yes.  Yes we can.

His stash from today's trip?
  Finding Zemo (a superhero graphic novel)
  See Otto
  Anakin to the Rescue
  Tale of a Tadpole
  Frogs
  Stink Bugs

And tonight, he read me See Otto.  All by himself.

I am so proud of my little reader!  And I am definitely going to encourage this habit!  Off to the library we will go every Saturday!

And now, I'm going to curl up with one of my books and a cup of decaf coffee while Tom watches basketball.  Goodnight all!

Star Wars Book

Tom literally pulled in the driveway 2 minutes ago. He brought Nate a
new Star Wars book from Emma.

I think he likes it!

Must be a good one...

To draw Nate's attention away from playing at the park!

(Nate got a new Transformers book from Tom today.)

Prairie Lights Bookstore

I saw this poster on the wall at the Prairie Lights bookstore in Iowa City. I was in town for an engineering advisory board meeting, and I was early so I was walking around downtown for a while. I had to stop there to sit for a while because I was so tired (I'm blaming the baby...)

If I could have bought this off the wall, I would have done so in a heartbeat. I love it that much.