Snorting for Squirrels

This weekend we went to a wedding. One of the discussions over dinner was the fact that both young children and dogs seems to love, and/or are fascinated by, squirrels. Avery is no exception. Lately, because we have a little garden, Avery has spent long periods of time just sitting in his stroller with a drink, watching the squirrels putter in and out of the bamboo.

So Hopie went to the library with Avery and took out three books on Squirrels. They also, as discussed previously, collected nuts. The nuts are a bit annoying because they basically are spattered randomly around the house and get caught underfoot. I have been throwing them out into the garden when I find them. But the books, those are pretty fun.

Avery started choosing his own bedtime books a bit ago. Choices were pretty much based on size, he loved tiny books, like "Busy Trucks" by Richard Scarry (a hand me down from Cousin Finn). I think he loved it mostly because it was SMALL. He also loved the Nutshell Library (those Maurice Sendak books that I cannot read without singing), given to him by Sara. And though those are completely fun, I think that the choices, at least when he was younger, were mostly based on size.

But now, Avery really seems to look for particular books based on theme or topic. He seems to love books with big color pictures and words, like My First Word Book. He loves books about trucks. And the combination of the two, books with big color pictures of ACTUAL trucks, those make him throw snacks about and snort. Well, the snorting is new, but we found it funny yesterday, so now he has done it a few times to make us laugh! But, to the point, he also loves the books on Squirrels.

Tonight, when I was cleaning up after dinner, I got Avery a book, gave him his bottle, and asked him to read a little while I got things together. He got up on the sofa, and examined the chosen book, "Panda Bear, Panda Bear, What do you See?". He was somewhat entertained, but it clearly wasn't his choice. He then proceeded to get down from the sofa, go over to the stroller, take out the Squirrel books (that now have a post-it on them to return to the library because they are due) and brought his favorite back over to the couch to read to himself. After flipping through the pages, he seemed to notice they were due. Ok, he had no idea, he clearly just likes taking things out of pockets, cups, etc. and throwing them about---but doesn't it look like he's noticing??? C'mon, he's a little smarty-pants!

Clearly, we have to renew the book.