Day 18: Breathe, Seek, Play....Read

 At the beginning of the year, we started off reading books at night together. I curl up on the bed and read a chapter or two each night to my little men. I've always enjoyed reading to them, and we usually read a short story, one of our picture books that I hope they will one day read to their children...but this year we started something new, reading chapter books, mostly classics, but finding books with meaning that we'd all enjoy reading, a family book. We started the year off with Charlotte's Web....and I cannot tell you the depth of emotion in reading a classic and watching the boys anticipate each turn of the page. I was so thankful that now we could read books that I would love to read again and we've  looked forward to picking out a new book to read once we finished. We've enjoyed so many books together and sometimes reading them with the boys it is as if I am reading it again for the very first time....seeing how  they embrace the story and the questions they ask, the way they pull their covers up entranced as if under the spell of the book we have chosen to read. Currently, we are reading Chasing Mavericks and the boys are so excited that they race up to bed each night and beg me to read one chapter more. They can't wait for me to finish the book so they can see the movie. My favorite part is sitting on their beds, reading them a story and hearing them giggle at the funny parts, ask questions when they don't understand, and their eyes dancing with images as if the words I am reading have found their way to the big screen in their mind. I steal these moments as I read, seeing their wide eyes darting....These are the moments that I will hold onto, and focus on....the late night snuggles, the pleas to have me read "just one more chapter"...I cherish these times. They say that children are made readers in the laps of their parents...I think that dreamers are made in the stories we share just before bedtime. I don't think there is a better way to end the night, becoming a child again getting lost in a book, a chapter read that makes your mind fill with wonder of what will happen next, ending with prayers with a snuggly kiss. "All children, except one, grow up. They soon know that they will grow up, and the way Wendy knew was this. One day when she was two years old she was playing in a garden, and she plucked another flower and ran with it to her mother. I suppose she must have looked rather delightful, for Mrs. Darling put her hand to her heart and cried, "Oh, why can't you remain like this for ever!" I think in many ways some of us are blessed and hold on to the Peter Pan syndrome....some of us never grow up, or at best we keep the spirit of a childlike heart alive, and in the bedtime stories we read to our children we hope to pass that gift along....Goodnight Neverland ♥