Reading

The first things Michael and I ever bought for Amon were books.  We made a date one Friday after work before he was born and went to Chapters to find some books to read him in utero.  We bought some of the classics, Goodnight Moon, The Hungry Caterpiller, and Pat the Bunny, as well as some others we weren't familiar with. I used to read to my belly every night, especially Goodnight Moon. So when he was born, and Dr. Soler told us to read him something to calm him down, we knew just what to do... except we didn't happen to have a copy of Goodnight Moon... it was our babymoon vacation and we weren't exactly expecting to have our kid! I could remember most of it, but there were some holes. My sister had a Winnie the Pooh book on her iPhone and I read from that between tears as I watched Amon's frail ribcage rising and falling.  We asked my sister to get a copy of the book at the local bookstore called Unicorn Books. She brought back a stuffed unicorn toy (more on that later) and a counting version of the book, but it didn't have the original words. Michael knew his mom would have a copy of Goodnight Moon, so he called home.  His brother Neil somehow found the book and dictated it over the phone so we could read it to Amon. When it became clear that Amon would have to be moved to Miami, and I would be staying in the hospital in Turks and Caicos, I recorded myself reading Goodnight Moon from the crumpled page Michael had written the words on.  I wanted him to be able to hear my voice even though we were separated.
Amon is not yet 6 months old and already has more than an entire shelf filled with books. As you can see, he really loves reading and has lots of sweet people who love reading to him!