The bookworm emerges

Yummmm ... books nourish my soul AND my tummy!

Today my child's inner bookworm emerged. Story time is not longer something I do for my enjoyment or to calm the baby for bed. He LIKES books and he told me so today.

This mama is beyond proud. Dreams of him winning top literary accolades and seeing his name atop the New York Times Bestsellers list seem not the least bit unrealistic now.

Bumpy has nearly mastered crawling this week. I was not prepared for this level of mobility, nor the speed at which he can scurry across the room. It thrills me, it scares me and I'm sure pretty sure once the novelty wears off (tomorrow?), it will sometimes annoy me.

I have read to my boy since the day he was born. So has his father (The Calm One). About six weeks ago, I started taking Bumpy to story time at the local library. Around that time, when I was reading to him, he started really looking at the pages. He began -- gasp -- paying attention when we read to him. He'd actually look at the pictures and text before trying to shred and devour the newspaper or chew on the board book pages.

It was amazing, the best milestone yet.



I don't care if it's not officially a milestone like walking, talking, etc. When your kid GETS books, it's a milestone.

I read to him in the bathtub, and recently I've been reading a story or two before the afternoon nap. But the real reading time is before bed. Bumpy gets a fresh diaper, we sit in the rocking chair and I read three or four board books to him. Sometimes we mix it up with Dr. Seuss. I rock in the dim light, he occasionally reaches a chubby paw toward a page, but mostly he stares intently at every page.

Today, I gave Bumpy his before-bedtime bottle. He was laying on the floor, sucking contentedly away at his sweet, sweet baby nectar of life, and I thought it was good opportunity to run down the hall to his nursery and set things up for the night -- a new bag for soiled diapers, switch out the changing pad cover, stuff his overnight diaper. I had a clear view of him in the living room via the short hallway.

I turned my back for a second to change the pad cover. I heard "ka-thunk" as Bumpy tossed his bottle on the floor. "That's a little soon," I thought, "I just gave it to him."

Then I heard a fast, nearly urgent "pat-pat-pat" sound coming up the hallway in my direction. I froze and held my breath, thinking this wasn't possible ...

I turned around slowly to see the little imp in the doorway of the nursery, grinning at me. He had crawled the farthest yet, across the living room and down the hallway. He had followed me for the first time, and he did it in record time.

He barely paused at the door. He took a sharp left and made a beeline to the nightstand by the glider in the corner. He rocked back on his little butt, and reached as far as he could up to the second shelf and grabbed "Pat the Bunny", the book closest to the edge. He looked over his shoulder at me, telling me "It's story time Mom, get your butt over here in this glider and READ TO ME" with his big baby blues.

This proves he is indeed my child and the product of several generations of proud bookworms, on both sides of the family.

He is my bouncing baby bookworm.