Sophie loves books

One of the last things we did before leaving for Singapore last year was put together Sophie's new bookshelf in her room. Until then, she had one bookshelf in our living room downstairs and a whole bunch of books we read at bedtime stacked (ok, strewn) on the futon in her room. We decided it was time to tidy up her room now that she's getting older and more in need of her own space and so when I saw this display bookcase on sale online, I grabbed it without thinking twice. And I have to say, it's been great. Even the books on the highest tier are within Sophie's reach and she can see all the book covers at a glance, which allows her to pick the books she wants with ease. We rotate some of the books with those downstairs so there's always a new variety for our bedtime reading, but there's also a core set of favorites we always seem to revisit every now and then (the original Madeline and Harold and the Purple Crayon have more or less never left her room).

And so these days, our bedtime routine pretty much unfolds like this:
7:30- Finish up whatever we're doing downstairs-- reading/ playing/ post-dinner fruit/ post-dinner TV treat-- and get ready for bath time.
7:45- Bath.
8:00- Get Sophie dressed in her jammies while listening to either The Muppets or the Sesame Street channel on Pandora. Sometimes, she'll ask for some milk during this time.
8:15- She picks three books from her shelf that we bring to the futon with us to read. Often, she even has a specific order in which she would like them read.
8:40- We're usually done with books by this time but she'll almost always start whining and ask for one more. Depending on how long Book #4 is, I may or may not give in (I Want My Hat Back- yes; Owl Moon- no).
8:45 (at the latest)- We snuggle for a bit, put her in her crib, and say goodnight. She's been asking us to leave the door open as we walk out- I think it's just so she can hear us as we jostle about downstairs. It probably lulls her to sleep.

I love that Sophie enjoys reading so much- she'll pretty much give up anything to listen to a story or look at a book. Even breakfast...

Madeline's Rescue at breakfast this morning