Bedtime stories

I remember being a kid and resting against my mom while she read us stories. And I've enjoyed reliving that nostalgia by watching Jill read storeis to Harrison, Sola, and Rocket. But now I get to enjoy the other side of the equation by having Clara cuddled up on me watching the pages turn as I read her stories.

More days than not I read her a few books throughout the day, and every night we read 3-4 books together as part of bedtime routine, always including "Blueberry Girl" and always ending with "It's a Wonderful World" (which, since it's a singing book, serves as kind of a lullaby).

I love reading to her. I love how she can be making all sorts of loud, bored baby noises until I pull a book out and then she gets quiet and attentive. I love how she kicks her legs when she gets excited from recognizing one of the books or from me singing parts of it. I love how she holds her breath for a secon and then coos "Ba!" when she's happy about what we're doing. I love how sometimes she very suddenly turns to look up at me, as if surprised to realize I'm the one she's sitting on and that it's not some disembodied voice reading the story to her.

And of course I'm happy to be (hopefully) setting the stage for her to have a lifelong love of reading herself. I think about how someday we'll probably read the first Harry Potter book together, and maybe when she's a preteen she'll be curled up in a chair in a living room of a house we live in (that would be amazing) reading Calvin & Hobbes. And who knows what books will come out during her youth that we'll be life-shaping for her. I am so looking forward to it!