I believe the printed word should be forgiven

Let’s celebrate with the Woods–
Their twosome is now three!
Come help us honor them
And see the newest member of their family.

We will shower Baby Heath
With books to read and enjoy.
Anna and Jeff can share these gifts
For years to come with their little boy!

I received an invitation to a baby shower this week. Now, this is the first shower I’ll attend that is not intended for a bride, so I’m not sure what to expect. But upon notice of the shower’s theme, I developed a quick enthusiasm for baby showers.

The invitation requested that each guest bring a favorite children’s book for the guest of honor, baby Heath. I’ve already spent what I consider a fair amount of time with my favorite newborn, so I would do basically anything he requested. But to bring a book to share with this precious child? That’s not exactly pulling teeth. 😉

Never mind that the shower isn’t for three weeks yet. This afternoon I made my way to Barnes & Noble and paid homage to a section I haven’t visited in years—the children’s books. It didn’t take long to find exactly the book I had in mind.

One of my earliest memories is learning how to read. I was 4 at the time, and reading was like opening up a whole new world. (Heck. I still think of it that way.) After investing a number of hours on tract-sized “books,” composed largely of sophisticated sentences such as “See Spot run,” I was eager to sit down with a real book and get to reading on my own.

It was with great pride that I began reading myself to sleep at night. I remember sitting in my partial-canopy bed (only appropriate for a princess!) in my purple bedroom. My heart filled with pride at my accomplishment—I could read the Little Bear series all by myself, without Mommy or Daddy at my side.

That childhood accomplishment established a pattern: I have read myself to sleep probably 99 nights out of every 100 evenings since. My heart again swelled as I flipped through the pages of Little Bear this afternoon. Books have kept me company and educated me in the 19 year since, and it’s only appropriate to bestow upon baby Heath the same books that set me on my journey as a reader.

Speaking of reading… I’m a list maker. (It’s a common first born quality.) I decided a while ago to keep track of all the books I read this year. I’m always hearing people say things like “My goal is to read five books this year,” and that blows me away. Five? Is that ALL? Sometimes I read five books in a WEEK. So I’ve created a little sub-blog to keep track of my reading for the year. Laugh all you want, ignore me if you will… if nothing else, I think it’ll be interesting to look back at the end of the year and see how many books I’ve read and how many I returned to the library unopened.