Eric and I are book people. Anyone who has seen the two and a half rooms currently housing our books (or helped us move) can attest to that. Hell, anyone who has even met us can attest to it. So it was fairly natural to assume that our child would also be drawn to books. However, this hadn't really been the case.

Mind you, I realize she's only 13 months old and it's waaaay too soon to come to any determinations on interests that will stay longer than five minutes, even. I get that. But when she constantly pushed the books aside in favor of toys or refused to even look at them...well, I was a tiny bit crushed.

Lately, however, she's been going over to her book area and spending up to half an hour looking at her books. And she's even let me read a few to her without forcibly pushing me and/or the book aside.

Then yesterday, I had her out and about and decided to get her a small something as she was being so very patient and wonderful on our errands. I spend a bit of time in the toy aisles and not once did she reach out to grab anything or even make a sound that something piqued her interest. So I headed over to the book area, thinking that if she's starting to appreciate books, then maybe I should pick up something for her there.

As soon as she saw the books, she started bouncing up and down and trying to reach them. She was practically shrieking because I wouldn't hand her one. Finally, we chose one (From Head to Toe by Eric Carle - for those that care) and she insisted on holding it during the rest of the shopping excursion. And when we got home, she brought it over to me and sat in my lap so I could read it to her - several times.

Can y'all see me smiling from over there???