Milestones: Sharing An Interest

Did you know that sharing an interest in something is a milestone? Like, when your toddler finds something new and exciting and they bring you to that something or bring that something to you?

I ask about it all the time with my patients. But, the more I think about it, the more I think how wonderful it is. We can’t read our children’s minds. Much as it would be amazing, especially during the terrible twos when there are many communication break-downs. So when they finally share one of their interests? We should appreciate it.

I admit, sometimes I was too preoccupied to appreciate the gesture for its true worth. But I had a light bulb moment last week. My kids are sharing something with me all the time.

Lately Little Lion has been insisting on reading out loud Percy Jackson’s Greek Gods by Rick Riordan to me. She’s been reading The Familiars by Adam Jay Epstein and Andrew Jacobson to Mr. Bookworm. In the past we have done intermittent ‘family read-alouds’ in which we take turns reading from a book together. It’s how we read Shannon Hale and Dean Hale’s The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl together.

And I realized that the girls have been actually sharing all along: Mini Me loves to read passages from a book that she’s reading as she’s reading it because the scene, dialogue, characters, or humor amuse her so much. And Little Lion will pull me or Mr. Bookworm from whatever we are doing to read out loud to us as well. Even if, like one morning last week, we were in the middle of trying to get her out the door to school. Even as I was holding up the book for her to read to me so she could get her shoes on, with a shoe horn, just like her Grandpapa.

I need to cherish these moments because just like when they were babies and toddlers, the days are long but the years go by fast. Soon they will be living on their own and Mr. Bookworm and I will be full of ‘remember whens’.

For now, I think I’ll enjoy the delight in their faces as they share a lovely passage with me. True bookworms at heart.

[Please note that even though I’ve pictured Little Lion on her laptop, she’s actually reading Escaping Peril out loud to me. This book is one of the girls’ favorite ones from the Wings of Fire series by Tiu T. Sutherland to read excerpts to us from because Peril has a great sense of humor and voice. ]