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!
I had a very proud mom moment this morning. We've been working on learning body parts lately. Sadie's favorite to point out are ears and belly button. Over the last few days she's also been pointing out mouth and arm. This morning she was sitting on the ground and I said "Sadie, where is your arm?" She started looking around on the ground. "Sadie, I said, where is your arm? Your arm?" I repeated the word several times so that I could be sure that she understood. After looking at the ground for a few more moments she dug through a pile of toys and found one of her favorite books (the Your Baby Can Read Slider Book). She looked at the cover for a few seconds and then pointed at the baby on the covers arm. I held my breath as she opened the book to the first page and pointed at the printed word "arm" before looking up at Paul and I expectantly. She lights up when we say "good girl!" 
