Chuff Chuff

Chris and I are operating like a well-oiled machine these days. We accomplish so much at night -- dinner, play, bath, bedtime stories, dishes, laundry, sweeping, toy chucking, lunches and coffee for the next day, often a little work, tea and a little TV in bed. Whew. At some point in January, in the midst of all this daily minutiae, I misplaced my reading time. I think I'll find it again once the days are longer and the screened porch is calling. Oh the lazy days of summer, they will be a welcome respite from these productive weeks.

Though the adult reading has been pushed to the side, I'm still willing to wager I read more on a daily basis than ever thanks to Nicky. His favorite thing, being given given cheese and blueberries, is to grab a book and crawl into your lap with it (he doesn't crawl into it so much as he backs into it). Just recently, he started to want to read things over and over again.

Last night, in addition to a Cars (the movie) calendar that we must have "read" at least 20 times (not at all high-brow enough to warrant blog space ;)), we read Freight Train by Donald Crews about five times. This has been on Nicky's top 10 list since around age 1 and I love it. The illustrations are wonderful and there's so much room for imagination. Plus, at about 10 sentences, it's a pretty easy read. It requires constant chuffing and choo-chooing, but Nicky handles most of that.

At bedtime we read Hug Time by Patrick McDonnell. I picked this out for Nicky's Valentine's gift after falling in love with delicate watercolors. I really love the gentle, environmental message, too, and the fact that Nicky has the attention span and patience for a rather quiet narrative like this just tugs at my heart. It's an undeniable sign of his exploding maturity. The sweet little rhymes get lodged in my mind, so that as I'm doing the dishes and making Nick's lunch, I'm thinking:

"Hug the whole world, will that make it better? As Jules nodded yes, Doozy helped with his sweater."

Or

"The world is SO big, and yet so small. It's time that we embrace it all. That's something that we all can do. Start with the one who's closest to you."

I'm looking forward to checking out McDonnell's other books, especially Art.

Oh, I love childrens books! Happy Thursday!