Day 31

I love, love, love reading to my boys. Right now, Jules favors choices that take a long time (our routine is "three books before bed") and, cleverly, he has been reaching for big find-and-seek activity books at bedtime.

On an evening when it's already 8:17 (bedtime is 7:30ish), a typical conversation around Julian's interactive book choice might go something like this:

Me: "That is not a book, that is a game."

Jules: "Yes, it's a booooook." 

Me: "Well, you're right. It's a book but let's pick another one, one we can read."

Jules: "We can read this. It has words."

The boy has made his point. With solid facts. (And do admit I admire his negotiation skills.) So we "read" it ... and after tucking him in, I move all of these "game books" from his room. And somehow they walk themselves back upstairs damn it.

Kai's current favorites include Freight Train, Big Red Barn and Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? By "favorites include" I mean that we read these books--and pretty much only these books--over and over and over again. Which is fine. Because they all have great rhythm. And so I've never stopped to even think about the words, about whether brown bear can see the red bird and so on. About whether all of the animals would really huddle together for a slumber party in the big red barn. Which is strange because it is my nature to factcheck everything. So when my friend Wendy told me today about an article in The New York Times that looks at the science behind the animal behaviors outlined in the very kid books I've been reading for 3 1/2 years, I rushed to read it. 

Brilliant. I am, however, a little concerned that now having been enlightened about the visual limitations Brown Bear, I won't be able to swing right into "I see a red bird..." quite so breezily...