Falling in Love with Books

Tomorrow morning we are leaving for the ocean with Grumpa and Nani and Nini and Gigi.  Hopefully we will be able to find someplace with internet access near where we are staying, but my blog may be on hold for a little while until we get back (on Monday afternoon).  

Sadie has finally (and quite suddenly) fallen in love with reading.  She resisted for months, mostly because she couldn't turn the pages herself, even the big, thick, board book pages and so every time she even looked at a book she would get a furious little look on her face.  

A few weeks ago Nani found the Begin Smart books at Barnes and Nobles, which has specific age groups listed at the top of each book.  We picked out a couple of the 0-6 month books and a few 6-12 months books.  

It was love at first sight.  The books have really simple pictures and the books that are for babies that are under a year old also have very simple language (like on or two words on a page at a time.  Sadie's is coordinated enough now to turn the pages by herself when she looks at the pictures on her own, which is probably also part of the reason that she is less frustrated.  

She is still watching My Baby Can Read daily and she's big enough now that she sits up straight in the middle of the living room and watches the twenty minute program, which gives me a little bit of time to write.  It's hard to tell if it's working, but the program says not to worry if you don't see results before 18 months, so we may have another 9 months to wait and see.  Even if she isn't learning to words just yet, she certainly loves staring at the clips of animals and listening to the songs.  And I'm just happy that she finally sits on my lap and lets me read to her.  

She even smiles at the pictures now.  

Sadie's Favorite Books of the Day is

My Baby Can Read (Almost)

Okay, maybe the title was a bit deceptive.  Sadie's not reading yet (although she does love the Your Baby Can Read videos).  But she is finally interested in looking at books.  She's more than a little rough on them though...  

Looking at the puppy...

This is Sadie's Favorite Page

Giving the kitty a kiss.

Ducks, Foxes and Porcupines: Adventures in Nor Cal

We had a breakthrough tonight at bath time.  I'd like to say that I knew that this day would come, but I have to admit that I was secretly afraid that Sadie's stubbornness would persist and that she would, after having decided that she hated books at the ripe old age of five months, go on hating books for the rest of her life (all because they aren't edible).  

Tonight all of the rubber ducks jumped into the tub with Sadie and I started to read Goodnight Boston to her.  She didn't look away!  After the first page she got a little smile on her face.  When we got to the part about the Make Way for Ducklings statue she started to get a little distracted, so I quacked like a duck.  Apparently this was the funniest thing that had happened all day (and we had a big day) and she looked at the book again.  

I knew what I had to do.  Whenever she got bored with a story, I would quack and she would look at the book and start to smile.  Any book with quacking in it has to be funny!

We made it through two entire stories!  That's a record!

Before we had tons of fun with the ducks in the tub, we went to Redding this morning for my doctor's appointment.  It was a beautiful day and the car thermometer said that it was seventy-five degrees when we headed home.  Nani came along since Paul is back at school, and sat with Sadie in the waiting room.  She was shocked when, after about fifteen minutes, I was ready to go.  The reason for the quick turn around time?  

When the nurse took me back into the exam room and took my blood pressure it was 90 over 58.  Apparently she thought that I was about to keel over, right there in the exam room, although I told her I was fine.  Within two minutes the doctor was in the room, listening to my heart (she agreed that nothing was wrong.  I just have very low blood pressure) and ten minutes later we were ready to go.  I've never been in and out of any doctor's office that fast.  

After finishing up all of our chores in Redding we stopped by Turtle Bay to play in the park before we started the long trek home.  Sadie saw a fox (you can barely see him in the first picture because of the glare on the glass... I think that she thought he was a cat.), an owl, a porcupine (he actually seemed to be her favorite) and a magpie.  

We went from the animals, to the playground where Sadie got to go on the swings (it was her first time on real swings!).  She insisted on sitting all the way forward, so that she was almost tipping over.  When we tried to show her how to sit back and hold on to the swing, she would glare and throw her weight forward again so that she could watch the ground.  

Swinging was fun, but I think that she had more fun watching Mommy and Grumpa swing, while she sat in her swing with Nani.  

From the playground we went back inside and looked at the fish.  You walk through a little tunnel that's dimly lit to get to the aquarium and Sadie's eyes were like saucers by the time we were through it.  She loved watching the fish and while I held her she pointed her little finger to make sure that we saw them too.  

To top off our big day Sadie started chicken today!  I can't say that it was a hit, although she ate every bite.  After each bite she would make a disgusted face and gag, before opening her mouth for more.  

Now it's time to call Daddy and go to bed.  We've gotten used to Daddy being home on weekends, after his long winter break.  I can't wait until summer break!  

Sadie's Stubborn Streak

Sadie is stubborn on most days and today was, for some reason unbeknownst to the rest of us, a particularly stubborn day.  It was also a fussy day, but I don't think these two facts were unrelated.  

The day started out with Sadie refusing to take her nap.  She does this periodically, usually after deciding that everything that is going on around her is more interesting than falling asleep on Mommy's chest and having sweet little bunny dreams.  At eleven o'clock I loaded her up in her stroller and started to walk.  She fell asleep by the end of the first mile.  An hour an a half later I decided that she had slept long enough and went back inside, hoping that her mood would have improved (by the way, I walked over six miles today, so Sadie's fussiness is helping me along with my new years resolution).  

After the walk Sadie was her usual cheerful self, smiling and giggling and wrestling with Kitty (the stuffed cat).  There was also an incident where Sammy (the tortoise shell cat) got a little bit too close to the baby and Sadie almost taught herself how to crawl so that she could chase after Sammy when the cat corrected her mistake and inched farther and farther away.  It started with Sadie grabbing her tail (which Sammy tolerated remarkably well) and ended with Sadie grabbing a giant handful of fur and Sammy twisting around and running out of the room.  

Before long it was time for Sadie's afternoon nap, but for a second time in twenty-four hours she just wasn't interested in going to sleep.  After about an hour and a half of "singing" (the little baby whining sound that she makes when she's tired), she finally passed out and slept for a little over an hour.  Even after the nap and dinner she was still fussy until bath time.  

Bath time was the second time that we had an example of Sadie's stubborn streak.  When Sadie got in her tub she reached up and picked out her favorite rubber duck out of a line of rubber duck.  It never ceases to amaze me that she can tell them apart and repeatedly picks her duck out, whether they're in the water or on the wall.  Lately we've added a bath time story as a part of the routine, because Sadie gets so frustrated when I read to her.  I thought she might be less likely to try to grab the book and try to shove it in her mouth when she was surrounded by her precious ducks.  

While we have made some progress (she didn't try to rip the book out of my hands and deconstruct it), we still have a ways to go.  Our nightly reading routine goes something like this:  Sadie looks up, sees the book and then, very pointedly, looks away.  While I'm reading she will look at her ducks, or at the side of the bath tub, or down at the water, but she absolutely refuses to look at the book (or the reader of the book!).  As soon as I stop reading, she looks up and smiles.  Apparently this is hilarious.  Today I did extra crazy voices and she actually glanced at the page three or four times.  Baby steps!

Adventures in Reading

I know that reading is important.  Our board book collection has now overflowed off of the Baby Book book shelf and is taking over the sitting room upstairs.  At this point though, it is largely untouched.  

In the beginning, before Sadie could really control the movements of her arms, she would sit quietly and nurse while I read to her.  Then the frustration set in, and Story Time has not been the same.  Sadie loves the "book" that's attached to her exersaucer.  It has three hard plastic pages and because they're bolted down to the tray she can turn them herself.  It's one of her favorite toys.  I wish that all the books we had were that easy to handle and durable.  It's amazing how much damage an infant can do to a sturdy looking board book.

Lately story time has become a little bit more difficult.  I think it's because Sadie understands the concept of books and really wants to help, but she's not quite coordinated enough to turn pages, so she gets frustrated.  

Story Time goes something like this: we sit down on the couch and I pick up the book.  Sadie will immediately start to fuss and whine.  She reaches for the book and I let her take it.  She calms down and tastes it and then tries to open it.  Her little hands might be able to open the book to the middle, but when she actually tries to turn the pages she isn't able to, and she starts to cry.  

I've been trying to develop different strategies to make Story Time fun.  I've tried giving her a toy to hold so that her hands are full so that she doesn't want to hold the book (she throws the toy down and grabs the book).  I've tried popping Binkie into her mouth so that her mouth is full and she doesn't want to taste the book (she spits Binkie out and starts to fuss as she sucks on the book).  I've tried giving her a book to hold so that we both have a book and she can work on turning the pages of her book while I read to her (she throws her book down and tries to grab my book, while whimpering).  Hopefully as she gets a little more coordinated she will get a little less frustrated.  

On the other hand she loves the Your Baby Can Read videos and has started doing little movements when the words come on the screen.  So far she has waved when it says "wave," pointed when they said "can you point at the word baby?" and touched her ear when the word on the screen said "ear."  At least she's getting some reading in.

Tomorrow is a big day!  Sadie has her first play date.  Finley (who, at 17 months is a big boy) is in California from Pennsylvania this week and he and his parents are driving out for a visit.  Sadie's not going to know what to do when she sees a big kid in the house!