Story Time

Nighttime routines have always been very important in our household. And part of the routine is story time. Since birth, we've read stories every night. Of course I don't recall how young, because a mother's memory diminishes quickly, and baby #2 is never as well documented as baby #1. Anyhoo, he was probably around 6-8 mos old when he fell in love with the most boring page of Goodnight Moon.  Not just a colorless page, but the one with the smallest picture of the entire book!  We could never get beyond that page because he insisted on holding it there.  Yet, he wasn't ready for the story to be over. So I leaned to read from memory while he stared at that teeny, tiny mouse...

Tonight we did individual story time, and I cuddled with my boy to read his selection, a household favorite, Giraffes Can't Dance. A very sweet story about a giraffe that gets teased at the annual animal dance.  While reading the second page, where Gerald 'buckles at the knees' and falls down,

Bryson rests his head on the book. I can't figure out what he's doing at first.  He turns the page, and I resume reading. Then we get to the page where the lions laugh out loud at Gerald dancing, and he does it again! Just lays his head on the book.  Finally, we get to the page where Gerald creeps off the dance floor and started walking home. He'd never felt so sad before...so sad, and so alone. Bryson does it again!

My sweet boy is hugging Gerald!  Every page where Gerald is sad, teased, or alone, he hugs him!  My heart melted. And I hugged my little empathetic boy with pride. So precious.