Elias' Favorite Books - 21 months

I wrote a post recently about the books Elias loved from birth to 20 months. Recently, I am learning from his day care providers K&J that he is able to sit through longer and longer books. This has opened a HUGE door for us, expanding our library significantly. We have a lot of books, and recently I purchased almost 45 new books! Yes, that sounds absolutely crazy. I want my kids to love to read and I don't mind spending money to develop good habits and provide some good parent-child time. And perhaps I am also compensating (or overcompensating) for the fact that my parents didn't read to me at all because they didn't know how to read in English (and they didn't have access to Polish children's books).

When K&J told me he's sitting through longer books, that day I ordered 15 Berenstain Bears and Franklin the Turtle books on Amazon. I used my Amazon credit card points for most of the purchase, but still paid $30. Not terrible, especially since I got over half the books the NEXT DAY! Yay for Amazon Prime!

A few days later I told K&J about my purchase and K sorta laughed asking why I didn't just go to the Friends of the Library bookstore?

I really had no good answer. Ummm... first time mom over here! Got a little too excited about lots of new books ... And Amazon Prime is just so easy. The books were new. I got to read reviews. I did this all from my phone without going any where.

And then the guilt hit me. What had I done?! I've been trying to be thrifty lately (combination of trying to save money for a new car and trying principles from the FIRE movement), and I hadn't even given this purchase a second thought. I thought it was a good thing to buy books. They're for my kids after all!

And so on Tuesday I HAD TO CHECK OUT the Friends of the Library bookstore. I ended up spending another $50 there getting almost 30 books! Crazy, yes. But lots of books for reading were gained. I walked these books back a whole mile to my office too. It felt like I did a book binge during my lunch break, sneaking out of the office at 11:30am like some sort of addict. I got Curious George books, more Berenstain Bears, more Franklin, a few Eric Carle books especially this anthology, a Sesame Street Anthology, and 4 Madeline books for Zoe. I felt so accomplished and in love with all the reading we'll be doing.

So, here's to expanding our library and to many many story times.