I love to read. I always have since I was a little girl. I remember struggling to get out of bed for school because I had stayed up ’til all hours of the morning reading. Back then it was books. There were a few series that were favourites that I collected and read over and over. In my early teens these included The babysitters club, Sweet Valley High and a series about a group of young gymnasts.
I also have always loved magazines and back then my favourites were Dolly and Girlfriend before graduating to Cleo and Cosmopolitan magazine.
As I grew older I continued reading pretty much anything and everything. I love fiction but also enjoy non fiction books and most magazines. I would read every night in bed, before falling asleep.
This was of course before I had the twins. My reading time now being drastically reduced and with any time in bed being used for sleep and sleep alone I hardly get to read a fraction of what I used to. I think I have read only one book from start to finish and half read another in the last 17 months.
These days, my reading material has also changed. While I still love reading books, I just cannot make the time with everything else I have to do in a day. The only books I get through are books on babies, twins and raising children or the odd cook book. Apart from the very rare splurge on a cheap gossip magazine (usually picked by being one of the cheapest on offer), the only magazine I am reading these days is Practical Parenting magazine (which I love), this is only because I was lucky enough to get a subscription for it from my sister for Christmas and it is promptly delivered to my door every month.
The majority of things I read in my post baby life are online (I am choosing not to mention my Facebook news feed on the grounds that it may incriminate me).
I have become obsessed with loads of websites and blogs. Most of them baby, parenting, or family and home life related. I love scrolling through them and researching all about my growing and developing babies. Getting inspiration from loads of other mums out there about such a large variety of topics.
One day soon I hope to be able to make the time to sit down with an actual book in my hands, relax back in a nice comfy chair and indulge myself in the story that unfolds in the pages in front of me.
Until then, I am learning a lot from the thousands of words I am taking in online.
The other form of reading I do now is of course reading to B1 and B2. They love their books. (I wonder if a love of reading and books is genetic?)
We read to them before every sleep. It is part of their getting ready for bed routine. They own loads of books and there is a rare moment when they don’t have a book in their hands. Between playing with other toys they will sit down and flick through a book then up and off to play with something else. B2 has even started wanting to take one of his books to bed with him. He has a teddy in one hand and one of his books in the other, and screams blue murder if we try to take it off him. So he now falls asleep holding a book sometimes.
“Some days we even want to hold our books while we eat lunch!”
I hope they continue with their love of reading as they grow older, just as I look forward to getting back into reading actual books for adults in the future.
Some of B1 and B2′s favourites:
Ang