Obsessed...Fixated...Determined...

These words describe my daughter and her favorite book: I Love My Hair. (You can find a link to this children's title and many others under "My Library" on the right side of this blog).

I ordered this book on a whim when my husband told me that we only needed to spend $5 more on bn.com in order to get free shipping (an $8 value). So as I was book browsing, up popped this book. I briefly read the description and then added it to his cart.

Little did I know that I had found a treasure, at least in my daughter's eyes.

Now that E is a little older, we've started a nightly routine. Around 7:45 or 8:00 at night, we change her diaper, put on her pjs, brush her teeth, say a prayer for her birth mom and birth family, and then allow her to pick one story. She toddles to her closet and chooses, every night, the same book.

So my husband decided to change things up a big and put the book underneath several others. Last night she, as usual, went to her closet, picked up the book on top of the pile, and then looked at it with confusion. Instead of I Love My Hair, she had We're All Different, We're All the Same in her hands. So my husband, when E wasn't looking, pulled I Love My Hair out just a tad. E immediately spotted it, snatched it up, and walked purposefully toward my husband with the book in her outstretched arms. She sat quietly and patiently on his lap, as my husband read her the book.

Her love of books warms my heart. When she learned to sit up on her own, E would sit quietly on the floor and gently flip through her board books. Her contentment in a simple pleasure like reading (well, looking, really) is beautiful.

So I give myself permission to grow her book collection, never knowing which title she'll latch onto next, but looking forward to the possibilities.