One thing Orla does not lack is books. She is surrounded by family and friend who love to read and love to spoil her with gifts, so Orla always has a steady stream of reading material that travels her way.
I hope that as she grows up that she finds reading as wonderful as I do. Right now we do stories every bedtime. Sometimes she snuggles in to my arms and pays close attention. Other times she is full of chatter and wiggles and isn’t that interested in the story. That’s OK, I just try and go with the flow, but most evenings it’s a wonderful, calm moment of my day; with my girl on my lap, reading stories with stars projected on the ceiling. It’s a great way to relax into the evening. The first year of Orla’s life was so stressful when it came to sleep, that I am very grateful now for our simple and pleasant bedtime routine.
I try and encourage Orla to read a mixture of stories but she has her firm favourites that she asks for more than any other. Here are her top reads at the moment:
The Bear Report – Sophie is disinterested in her homework about polar bears until a real life polar bear appears and whisks her off to his snow covered world. The illustrations in here are mesmerizing. Orla’s favourite bit is singing the whale song!
The Tale of Peter Rabbit – We have the whole set of Beatrix Potter but for now the only one she wants to read is the Tale of Peter Rabbit. I think this might be her most read book of all. I guess there is a reason why this very naughty rabbit has stood the test of time, children still love his antics all these years later!
1,2,3 – I love Shirley Hughes drawings, and so does Orla. This book 1,2,3 is filled with all the things that make up a happy childhood; tea parties, friends, kittens, holidays and walks in the park. Orla counts all the children on each page, and asks me what all their names are. She then gleefully tells me when I get it wrong!
The Dreaming Tree – Erica goes on a year long campaign to save the cherry tree on her road from being chopped down. The illustrations of Erica’s day dreams are stunning. I’m not on the look out for more work done by Claire Brown, because she is amazing!
Cinderella – We already had three books in the Ladybird series and Orla would often look at the back page at all the pictures of the other books in the series. She asked me many times if she could have Cinderella. Well, last week we found it! It was in Homebargains, and for 80p it was soon ours. Orla’s read this every night for the last week. She has the biggest grin on the last page when the Prince and Cinderella get married. It is very sweet to see her enjoy the happily ever after ending. The simple joy’s of being three!
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