Every parent has hopes and wishes for their children.
My hope was for my 19-month-old son to enjoy books and we didn’t have to wait long to find out he does enjoy books.
He has piles of books in a storage bin in his bedroom, more in his closet and in his play area.
He can be found sitting quietly with a book in his lap while surrounded by books he pulled off shelves. He talks as he turns the pages.
He will also read a book while he sits in his carseat and will loudly say the words in his toddler speak before falling asleep with the book still in his hands.
JD also doesn’t mind when visitors bring a book or two for him. He happily welcomed his great-aunt Lynn (my aunt who works in a elementary media center) when he saw all the books in her hands.
He has a few favorites right now he leans towards which makes it easy to ask him to go find the piggy book (This Little Piggy illustrated by Steven Haskamp).
He used to enjoy There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly by Lucille Colandro, but he has had enough which is a shame because I know have it memorized and no longer need to the book in front of me to read off the words.

I will read to him as part of the bedtime routine, when he is playing as a background noise or when he nestles into my lap with a book in his hands.
As he has his favorites, so do I. I lean towards the rhyming stories including a few Dr. Suess tales. Right now it’s Horton Hatches the Egg. It has a nice rhythm to it.
We have had to set some books to the side because they are in recovery with page injuries – If You Give a Mouse a Cookie by Laura Joffe Numeroff and The Doorbell Rang by Pat Hutchins. JD’s strength turning a page was too much for the paper pages and a few ripped.
I have tried reading the illustrated version Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone while he is playing, but only make it through a page or two before he has had enough or chooses another book for me to read.
“Children are made readers on the laps of their parents.” Emilie Buchwald