Reading One by One

She opens a book
And turns its pages
One by one

And you
Delight in each picture.

But it was not always

This way.
In the beginning

You twisted

And turned
And looked

Around,

You grabbed

And chattered

And laughed at the dog,
While mom kept reading,

Savoring each picture,

Softly laughing,

Turning pages

One by one.

Though you played, 

You stayed on her lap,

And the little

By littles

Captivated;

The one

By ones

Enwrapped.

Now
 When mom reads

You melt into her lap,
Sinking into each word
Your mother whispers,

Savoring books

One by one.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

When I visited my daughter and son-in-law for our grandson's first birthday last week, we were treated to the vision of our birthday boy snuggled in his mom's lap listening to her read a book.  His attention was intense.  He studied every picture, though he was relaxed and leaning back on her in her lap.  She reads 2 books to him every night before he goes to bed, and books "on demand" throughout the day.  He has a stack of board books on the bottom shelf of the coffee table, so that even though he is low to the ground, he can get a book any time he wants to.  Books are an important thing for him.  But I wonder if they would be if he hadn't had them from a very early age...like from day one.  

The day after his birthday, his mom looked over to see him sitting in the Pack n Play with one of his new birthday books open in front of him. He was turning pages, front to back, one at a time, looking at each picture.  When he got to the end, he looked at the back of the book as if to say (as we adults will do with a good book) "What?  That's all?  You're just going to stop the story here?"  Then he turned back a page and lingered on that picture as if savoring the "story" a bit longer.

My daughter is growing a reader.  She started little by little, one by one...here a book, there a book...EVERYWHERE a book, book!