My Little Bookworm

As an English teacher and an avid reader, one of my greatest desires for my boys is that they will enjoy reading. So far, I have had great success with Owen, although maybe a little too much.

About 6 1/2 months old and reading already!

Owen loves to read. Even when he was younger, less than a year old, I could put him in his crib with a couple of books for some "quiet time" and he would sit there, quietly reading his books for at least 20 minutes. (Which was also a nice break for me).

He can read upside down!

No book is too big of a challenge for Owen!

He loves being read to. One of the highlights of our week is story-hour at the library. We started going when he was a little under 2 years old. Right from the beginning, I was impressed at how well he behaved and how attentive he was to Miss Library as she read to the children. In a group of 18-36 month olds, the majority of the kids were constantly wiggling around on their carpet squares and looking at what was going on around them. Owen, however, was always glued to his carpet square, eyes on Miss Library, deeply engrossed in the story.

He reads catalogs.

And the comics.

Owen is now in the habit of reading before bedtime, a habit that I admit to getting him started on. When he started rebelling against taking naps, I tricked him into having "quiet time" instead. I told him that he didn't need to go to sleep, but he DID have to lay down and read his books for a while. It worked like a charm; he almost always falls asleep.

It must have been a pretty boring book.

When Owen gets into his bed for the night, he takes a couple of books and his flashlight with him. And here is where my desire for him to love reading comes back to bite me. The kid will read forever, literally for hours, before finally falling to sleep.

A required read for anyone experiencing their Terrible Twos.

Last night I went upstairs around 9:30 and noticed that his flashlight was still on. I peeked into his room because sometimes he will fall asleep with it on. This time, however, he was still awake, intently reading a book, with a pile of more books laying next to him. This is an issue that I'm torn on how to react to. I don't want to yell at him to stop reading and go to sleep because I want to encourage, not discourage, his desire to read. But at the same time, I don't want him to think that it is acceptable to be up reading until 10 pm every night.

I chose to play the sweet mommy. I kissed him on the cheek, and told him that I really like that he loves to read so much, but it was getting really late and he needed to go to bed. I told him that he could finish the book that he was reading, but then he had to turn off his flashlight and go to bed. Very sweetly, he told me that he would.

He didn't. He was still awake and reading at 10:00 pm. And the rest of us were paying for it today as he woke up at his usual time, and emerged from bed as Cranky-Owen. Lucky us.