What's Thaaaaat!?

I have this problem where I rarely let anyone put my children down to bed other than myself. Sometimes Jason will do it but he is often itching to get to The Build so that he can come back home at a decent hour....(which there is no decent hour anymore by the way, he comes home anywhere from 12-2am sometimes later these days!!) There have been times where my mom has put Austin to bed as well, which is a Grandma's treat, so I love when she gets the opportunity to do so. But really, putting Austin to bed is the best.

I remember when one of my friends told me that they read their 3 year-old, three books at bedtime, the long ones. I remember thinking, "Three long books!? Really!? Why not just one!?" I have no clue why I was thinking this was too much or too lengthy of a bedtime routine. Currently, I am sucked into a minimum of 4 sometimes 6 books a night. Granted these are not the complete story of Beauty and the Beast but some of those Dr. Seuss books are pretty lengthy.

How can you not enjoy reading to your child? It's the best. Austin loves to read book after book and I can't help but enjoy it just as much. My favorite part right now is when Austin gets stuck on a page with lots of animals or items that prompts him to ask "What's thaaaaaat?" I love the drawn out 'thaaaaaat'. It can be quite tedious after you have answered it for the twentieth time on one page, but it's precious. Many of the items he already knows what they are, but still loves to ask.

We get stuck on the page in The Very Hungry Caterpillar, where he eats everything but the kitchen sink. We also get stuck on the page in King of the Dinosaurs where just about every dinosaur is present that ever lived. After The  Very Hungry Caterpillar and King of the Dinosaurs (a very random book that I bought at a used bookstore when I was pregnant with Austin, glad that it's one of his favorites), we then read My Mommy Hung the Moon (how appropriate that it says "My mommy's good at everything", just sayin'). I can just imagine Jason reading that book thinking, "Where is the part about Daddy hanging the moon?" Then we read Mrs. Wow Never Wanted a Cow and Oh! The Thinks you can Think, to meet our Dr. Seuss quota. And to top it off, we read The Busy Christmas Stable, a book with pop up Mary, Joseph, and Baby Jesus figures that Austin loves to pop up and push down. We have been reading about the Christmas stable all year long, not just because the holidays are approaching.

These are definitely things I want to remember about having little children. I love their curious little minds and as Austin begins to talk even more (hard to believe they talk more!) I can only imagine what funny things he will say or ask. For now, I will take as many "What's Thaaaat?"s as I can get!