Brown Bear, Brown Bear

As a young child, my mother instilled the love of reading in me. She took my siblings and I to the library, let us buy books through the book club, had subscriptions to magazines and highly encouraged us to read "Reader's Digest" although I preferred "Teen Beat." Now as an adult, I still enjoy reading.  Lately I have been reading articles about toddlers and adoption but you can also find me reading the "Wall Street Journal" or cooking magazines.

Jackson has taken a liking to books.  His favorite is "Brown Bear, Brown Bear," by Bill Martin Jr. and Eric Carle. In fact, he is sleeping with the book right now! I am not sure how he came to love this book but I started reading it to him the night we became a family. He taps the book as I read it signaling that he is also reading it with me (he does this with all of this books now). Jackson has had several crying spells and every time I say, "Brown Bear, Brown Bear," he stops crying.  I don't know what it is! For an instance, it was nap time today and I know he was really tired. I said, "Jackson, Brown Bear, Brown Bear," he stopped what he was doing, ran into his room, got his book and sat on my lap.  We read the book together and he fell right to sleep.

I hope the love of reading will continue. Books are so powerful and often times they can express what we cannot say. So, if you are having a bad day pick up your favorite book or just read "Brown Bear, Brown Bear."