"I hear a tap, tap, tap. That's a woodpecker tapping at a tree..." I hear lines from Eliza's favorite books in my sleep I'm so familiar with them. I love reading to her. Yes, sometimes I groan and roll my eyes when she comes to me with the same "bookie" for the third time before noon. Half the time it's not even a book she likes. But for the most part, hey I'm a big ham, I try to do different voices (probably unsuccessfully) and act it out (probably even more unsuccessfully) so I enjoy reading to her, over and over and over again.
"Agent A to Agent Z" is a book I especially love to read to my daughter. The reason I have this book is something of a fluke. The artist/writer lived in my former Brooklyn neighborhood and we were somewhat friendly. Back in 2004, he had a book party at a local pub and somehow I ended up attending. I purchased a book, had him sign it for Meredith's kids and then for whatever reason, neglected to give it to them. When I got pregnant and started to amass a small, kid-friendly library, this book found it's way from the closet to the Eliza bookshelf.
It's an alphabet book, with each agent named after a letter. In order to be an official agent, the spy must use words that start with his or her initial. When I pulled the book off the shelf, I thought it was maybe too old for Eliza but we tore into it anyway. I made the book very interactive, for instance when Agent E presses eject and flies through the air, I hoist Eliza into the air. When Agent U is upside down, I hold Eliza upside down--you get the picture.
For a few weeks, this was her favorite activity. Several times a day, she'd come to me with the blue book and say "A, read A." And I loved it, loved acting it out, loved doing different voices. Every time I'd read it, silently I'd thank Andy for giving me one of the best experiences with Eliza to date. Eliza knew the book by heart, she'd stand when we got to Agent E and eject, tap the side of her face when we got to Agent M and his molar and make choking sounds when we got to Agent Q who concealed something in quiche.
I loved this experience so much I decided to videotape us reading this book together. However, by the time I got around to doing this, Eliza's interest in the entire book had waned. She only wanted to do eject or be held upside down. She was no longer interested in the rest of the book. "Agent A" went to the scrap pile of rejected books on the floor and I sadly lamented the loss of yet another favorite activity due to my kid's progress.
In the place of Agent A were fun books to discover as well as new skills like ball tossing and longer dance duets after dinner. There's little time to feel sadness when everyday she seems to discover something else fun she can do that didn't exist in her world before. Lately, Eliza has turned into quite the little singer. She enjoys singing the alphabet song though she doesn't know all the letters and slurs them or skips them to suit her purposes.
On the long, long, long car ride back from Pittsburgh last Monday, to entertain her I started to recite "Agent A." Much to my surprise, her eyes widened and she seeemed genuinely thrilled to return to the book that had brought us so much happiness. The following morning, she dug through the book pile and retrieved "Agent A" from the bottom. My joy was short lived. I read the first page only to have her snap the book shut and toss it on the floor. But the next day, she handed me this book again and this time she not only let me read the whole thing, she really enjoyed it. I don't know how long this will last, but it sure beats some of the other books I've read to her over the past few months.
All hail Agent A. Anyone have a favorite book they like to read to their child. I'm always on the lookout for new books so please feel free to share.
