[**guest**]

how do you do this???

if max is awake, he wants to grab the books (which ada does not like). giving him another book to play or toys satisfies him for 30 second, and even with it, i cannot focus on reading to ada, as i need to constantly toss new toys to max. and he cries in frustration because he cannot have the book that we are reading. it is torture to me.

when i try to read to her when he is asleep, she is so anxious, she gets frustrated that she cannot lie down or sit down exactly how she wants, because max is either in the sling or next to me in bed, or nursing. then the whole thing turns into a fit, because she wants to nurse too. so i would think this would be enjoyable, and it is not.

another problem is that to be honest, i would like a touch of 'me time' when max is asleep, so i tend to gravitate towards the computer. i am trying not to do it, but hey, i am only human. i need a break from time to time.

playing is hard too, as max wants to get into everything.

how do you handle this?

 

[AndiG]

Is Max crawling or walking yet? I used to find with my two that reading went better if we sat on the floor to do it and I got used to the idea that everyone was going to crawl all over me (especially my son) while I read the book. Maybe he would stand and jump up and down leaning on my shoulder or make a mess out of some blocks (he loved dumping things and putting them back in something and dumping them out again at that age) while I read. Ultimately both of the children are complete book hounds and they do sit nicely NOW to read books together, they take turns picking them out (which was a hard lesson for the littler one to learn)
Also I found that more tactile books (like the d&k touch and learn series) were better for him to look at by himself while I read to dd... would hold his attention a little longer to give me time to read a whole book to dd. Also we tended to only pick shorter or rhyming books when reading to a mixed age group... again, the cadence and the brevity kept the attention span longer.

I'm sorry, I know how challenging it can be. I read some of your blog. It sounds like a super challenging time right now. We're in Ontario too, do you think the incredible amount of damp cruddy weather we've had this Oct could be contributing to all of us having early cabin fever?

good luck!

 

[**guest**]

hi Andi
thanks for giving me hope -- one day it should be better, right?

max is crawling, but not cruising yet. he drops whatever he was doing to get to the book that i am reading. i am trying to choose shorter books and board books, but ada has her own choices, of course, and then we never finish hers, kwim? she is getting so super frustrated. i am so frustrated too.

i end up promising her to read 'when max is alseep' or 'when max is in the highchair eating'. but most of the time i start, and then have to stop, because he is frustrated and crying, and i feel so bad for him too.

oh well, it will get better one day.

 

[spirit4ever]

we are in the exact same situation, I now only read to ds at bedtime while dh plays with ds2, its the only way for me to read Isaac his story (that he has chosen) w/o Josh interupting, otherwise its impossible!

 

[PONOKELAMAMA]

we are in the same spot right now also. Ds is 4 and Dd is 7 months. I guess all that time in the womb listening to me read books to Ds made her into a book worm also! Reading books has always been our special time with Ds and now it is everything you described! I really miss being able to sit down with a a stack of books and read as many books as we could. Now, we read when it is possible, maybe a couple books a day compared to a few dozen ( not joking at all) before Dd was born. I do remind myself that SOMEday it will be different and for now i perform a "storytime" for Ds in the afternoon whilw Dd is sleeping in the Ergo carrier which consists of three or four book and two or three songs/fingerplays and he really really looks forward to it. The first nap of the day for Dd i take care of housework, the second nap is kinda whatever is going on and the third nap is "storytime". This is just what works for us, oh and Dd almost always sleeps in the Ergo carrier. that is a whole other post though...

Also, one other time i read to Ds is when we are all eating and Dd is in the highchair. I know this is really unconventional but it works for us and Dd is less fussy when she is entertained in the high chair by me reading and i also sneak in a few veggies this way, ya know "read a page, take a bite". He loves it!

The other thing we do sometimes is let Dd play with a magazine while we read books. We get these magazine in the mail that have really thick pages and she just loves em!!!!

I hope some more advice comes in, this is such a challenge for us also!