Reading; Bedtime Books

Related to speaking has been reading and Ivan's interest in books. This is something I've been freaking out about for the last year, at least.

The last few weeks, probably the last two months, he's become crazy about books. He'll flip through them on his own during the day. He absolutely insist we read books before bedtime. When we're done with one book, he insists on "moo, moo." He'll also get off the bed to go and bring me more books. And he knows which ones we just read and doesn't want to reread them again.

He gets really upset if I cut off the book reading time.

I've tried introducing the concept of "this is the last book we'll read and then you have to go to sleep," but I think he's still too little to grasp that concept.

He likes to point to the "moon" on every page of every book that has a moon, like in Good Night Moon, the Going to Bed Book, etc....As soon as I flip the page, he finds the moon, points to and and says "moo, moo." (Actually as of this week, the "moo" has become the full word "moon.")

In the Good Night Moon, he also looks for the little mouse on every page. I don't know whether my mom first showed him the mouse or he found it himself. It's been a few months. He looks for the mouse and says "mi, mi". (Again this week, I think that "mi, mi" has become a very soft "misic")

He also points to mush on the page where the mouse is eating the bowl full of mush.

I'm really glad that he's finally gotten into books and that reading books has become a bedtime ritual.

For a long time last year, I was really anxious that Ivan wasn't interested in books while apparently all other moms had quiet, well behaved one-year olds who were eager to sit in their lap and read a book before bedtime. Ivan was interested in running around like a maniac after his bath (or like in the Going to Bed book, after bath, he'd go up to exercise!). I couldn't calm him down; he wouldn't sit or lay with me. Only plopping him in his crib would calm him and he'd fall a sleep without a problem.

All this started half a year ago in October. It was the week of Andy's birthday, the week the time changed. The night of Andy's birthday Ivan had too much cake. I think he was too high on sugar to be able to fall asleep on his own. He wanted me to lay with him in the spare bedroom while he tossed and turned and finally calmed down. That same night the sky was really crisp and clear and moon was bright. He was mesmerized. I think that was the first time he actually saw the moon.

In any case, since that night, he wanted to lay with me on the bed while he fell asleep and started refusing to be put in his crib to fall asleep. He also stopped running around after bath time but started to cuddle. I tried reading books. After a few months, he really got into them. Now he won't go to bed unless we read a few books.