When you are pregnant with your first child you have these eutopian visions of what life will be like with your sweet little baby.  You will be sitting in a rocking chair reading them books as they quietly look on and snuggle in your lap.

Then reality sits in.

At first the book is nothing more than a chew toy.  Get those nice board books, they can withstand a good chewing.  Nowadays there are even fabric or foam ones, too, that can withstand the drool.  If their books survive that phase then it is on to the next one.

Next comes the page turning maniacs.  They will sit in your lap and all they want to do is turn the page as fast as possible.  They certainly don’t want to wait long enough for you to read the five words that are on the page. 

Turn the page, turn the page….I MUST TURN THE PAGE QUICKLY!!  ALL DONE!  Next book….

Anya is currently in that stage.  She’s not really interested in sitting and listening to books at all…she just wants to turn those darn pages…Fast!  She can read a good half dozen books in a sitting.  Kai is finally to the point where he will sit and listen to you reading a book to him, so there is a light at the end of the tunnel. 

Of course now books have another purpose.  Stalling.  At bedtime we try to read at least one book to them before bed, and if Kailan were to have his way we would be reading EVERY book to him.  He’s got it all figured out.  Mom and Dad are so excited that they can read a whole sentence to him, so he knows he has us where he wants us.