Books and Puzzles

We have read books to Callen since he was a teeny tiny baby. He would lie in our arms and we would read whatever kid book that was nearby. Neither Doug nor I are the best about reading...we read while traveling and that is about it. We both know the importance of reading and have really tried hard to instill the love of reading in Callen. Once Callen became mobile, his desire to sit in our arms and read quickly dwindled! We would pick out a book to read, he would sit still for about a page, and then off he went to play. However, over the last few weeks, Cal has taken a greater interest in books. He has a stack of about 7 that he loves. Most of the books are about trucks or animals, but one of his favorites is a book full of pictures of babies doing everyday activities (eating, sleeping, crawling, walking, etc.). He always asks for his 'kid' book, and will stand at his chaise lounge and flip through the pages for a good 5-10 minutes at a time (that seems like an eternity for this child!). Other favorites include Goodnight Moon (love looking for the mouse moving around on each page), My First Truck Board Book (he wants to know the name of each truck on each page), Fischer Price Little People Let's Go to the Zoo book about the zoo (he enjoys lifting all the flaps and making the sounds of each animal), and Little Blue Truck (he loves looking at the dump truck and making the sounds of the animals in this book too). We recently started naming all the 'kids' in his Little People book after the kids in his Kindermusik class. It is so cute to see him point to each kid after I ask who each one is. He loves his little friends! 

Cal will either stand at his chaise lounge and flip through the pages on his own, or curl up in your lap and read the books with you. I used to fear what I would find if I left Cal alone for a few minutes and did not hear the pitter patter of his feet. Now when I don't hear any noise, I go straight to his room to find him standing and reading.

Good snuggle time with Grandmom

Loved showing Nana and Oupa one of his favorite books

Not the chaise lounge, but it is a place to perch his book so he can read!

He has also taken an interest in puzzles. He is getting really good at them and can do a puzzle that is aged for 3+ with just a little bit of help. He cracks me up doing the puzzles...he knows where each piece goes, so he purposely puts the pieces in the wrong places and says 'nooooo' and moves it to another incorrect spot and says 'nooooo' before putting it into the correct place. Cal recently got this puzzle to try and advance his puzzle solving skills. He hasn't been able to take every piece out and put it back together yet, but he can take out 3-4 pieces and put those back in place. I have a feeling he'll be doing a 1000 piece puzzle with me at the beach this summer (one of my favorite traditions from family beach trips!)!!!!!

Cal uses the coffee table as his puzzle table!