Books

Alina loves books and paper.

The first time I noticed this was when I was traveling with her at 6 months old, and she kept reaching for my boarding pass. I finally let her have it, and she carefully held it, content to have the paper between her fingers.

When she picks up a book, she is very careful. She'll try to go through the pages, and sometimes she'll even stop and look at pictures. But for the most part, her fun is in turning the pages. For this reason, I have used board books with her so much more than I ever did with David. When David was tiny, books were isolated to our lap time when we read together. For Alina, books are part of her everyday play.

This photo was captured at the end of a day when she was ready for bed. (Yes, that's the bright summer sun streaming in at bedtime--we generally keep bedtime confined to the rooms with blackout curtains, but this night must have played out a little differently.)

 Anyone who has ever had pigtails before knows how good it feels to take the rubberbands out and rub your scalp. Ahhhh, that's instant relief. So pardon the crazy hair--but we also captured her with a bedtime story, which she loves. Almost as much as she loves her bedtime head massage.