I Spy Little Animals

I couldn't resist... I had to compile this picture. I sepia-toned it so that the colors are not a giveaway - one is Ana and the other is Oggie, at 5 months - and am quite amazed at how much alike they seem at a glance at that age :)

I started reading to Ana when she was about 3 months or so. Ana was a colicky screamer. So, if I wanted to save my back for future use, I had to find some way to keep her distracted and quiet - other than just holding her and rocking her while walking around the house and yard. Reading and singing seemed to be my two main options and usually reading seemed to do the trick. Ana was fascinated with books - she liked the flavor and texture as much as the pictures and sounds that accompanied them.

The very first book I read to her was this I Spy Little Animals book by Jean Marzallo/Walter Wick Simple rhymes and bright photos of easily recognizable everyday things made this book a natural favorite. Since then, we've read quite a few of these I Spy series books and Ana has fun spotting the "hidden" item in each page.

I've been a bit lax with Oggie: I started reading the same I Spy Little Animals book to him around when he turned 3 months, but have not kept up the pace as he seems more interested in practicing left hooks and right jabs while exercising his hams and quads. He does like raking the book with his teensy little hands and occasionally chewing on the corners. He seems to have a favorite page as far as visual stimulus goes - the page that is mostly blue-green with "I spy a door and a starfish star". He punches and grabs at it vigorously, expressing, "egg", "eggy, eggy!" animatedly, that being the sum total of his vocabulary these days.

Ana is terribly possessive of her books: the few dozen that she owns in her bookshelf are off-limits to Oggie - she clearly stated that she will not share those with Oggie. However, she was terribly sweet about sharing one of her twin baby dolls with him - she willingly brought it out and gave it to him. Of course, not being a girl baby, Oggie could care less about dolls now...

Perhaps over the next few months I can try to establish a more consistent routine of reading to Oggie... we'll see... no pressure. He'll show me what he likes best, I'm sure.