Reading at a Young Age

If you follow this blog, it's a pretty safe bet you love books. i mean, I know we're hilarious and awesome and all, but you probably wouldn't have found us unless you're a YA fan. Unless you're related to us, of course.

But those of you who aren't our actual family are probably all YA readers. and not just readers, but big readers. And you've probably always had a love of reading.

I've been reading to my 3-month-old since she was a teeny tiny baby in the NICU. It's really fun to see the change in her during storytime.

In the NICU, she just slept while I read. Then when she was a few weeks old, she would be awake, but looking at me, not the pictures. At about 1 month, she started attentively staring at the pictures.

Around a month and a half, she started to seem to recognize the story if it was one we'd read several times before. She particularly loves "Brown Bear, Brown Bear" by Bill Martin and Eric Carle and "Shampoodle" by Joan Holub (shout out to Joan, who follows this blog! She actually giggles when we read this one!!!!). About that same time, she started tracking. When I would read her a story with both words and pictures on both pages of a two-page spread, she would look at the correct page at the right time. I know it's because she could see which page I was looking at, but still, that's kinda cool, you know?

Then around 2 1/2 months, she started grabbing the pages and trying her best to turn them for mommy. :)

A couple of weeks ago, we started going to "Babytime" at the library. It's baby storytime for babies under 12 months old. We sing songs, do lap bounces, finger play, and listen to stories. Let me tell you...30 babies, mommies, daddies, and nannies in a room is cuteness overload!

I love that she's already so interested in books, because that's such a huge part of who I am.



So what about you? Did you love books at an early age? What age did you learn how to read? What were some of your favorite books when you were little?