My baby girl looks exactly like her dad, and seems to have his temper and appetite as well, but there is one thing that maybe came from my side: She loves books. The minute she sees a book she drops her other toys (she does the same with her dummy when she sees food) and brings the book to one of us. She is only 10 months old but is able to concentrate through the whole story with a big smile on her face.
So we have been reading and reading, getting new kids books from the shops and online in both English and Finnish. At the moment I think we have about 20 books on our living room table where she can choose the one she wants to have read. But there is one thing that has been a surprise for me when it comes to small kids books. They are often quite senseless and boring and sometimes the stories are also quite cruel. For example a story about an alligator who is eating little ducks but in the end the ducks are saved because an elephant is squashing the alligator flat (and you clap along!), or a really badly written shortened version of a Disney story. I understand that tiny toddlers can't necessarily concentrate on very complex story lines but we shouldn't think kids are stupid either. And what's with the scary stories? "Good night baby. Yes, the wolf was hiding an axe behind his back to kill the little pigs, but it's okay. The pigs survived. This time."
One of my dreams has always been to write a children's book. I have a couple of ideas for a series of books and when I explained my ideas to my husband, he made a few drawings for the books as well. I have only one problem in writing them and the problem is me. I have always thought that I can't be good enough, that my stories would never be published or if they somehow would, no one would at least buy them. This problem of mine comes from my childhood and at some point I may write a separate post about it. But now, when I have been reading to my daughter a lot and seen the quality of some books (don't get me wrong, there are many many great kids books as well) the bar to write something myself has gone down a bit. Maybe it's not low enough quite yet but I think it will get there.
Meanwhile I will gladly take recommendations of great and educational kids books. Thank you.
Hugs, Momone
