Walking while reading a book (is not safe).

Check out the book in Isabelle’s left hand. (Much better than when she was reading it while holding it with both hands and walking around our house earlier in the evening.)

One summer, when I was home from college, I used to see a woman walk up and down the walking path near my parents’ house with a book in hand.  She would jog, albeit at a slow pace, with a book in hand.  And I’m not just talking about a paperback book.  I’m talking about a hardcover novel .  I don’t know how she was able to absorb what she was reading while managing to put one foot in front of the other without face-planting into the concrete.  But somehow, whenever I saw her jogging, she was moving and reading.  Impressive.

What’s somewhat impressive, and just as scary to me, is watching my darling daughter walk and read.  She’s been walking for a little over two weeks now.  She’s getting quite confident.  In fact, on Saturday evening, as we were getting ready to go out to dinner with my parents, she grabbed her personalized board book and began walking with it.  I tried taking it out of her hand.  No dice.  She gripped it even tighter.  I tried reasoning with her.  (Have you ever reasoned with a toddler?  If you have, then you’ll know that’s about as easy as trying to fly through the air without wings.)  That didn’t work either.  Therefore, I let her walk and read.

Of course, she’s not reading the words on the page.  Rather, she’s just flipping through the book and admiring the pictures.  However, admiring the pictures when one little girl is not adept at walking made my body tighten.  I recalled the jogging reading who I always feared would face-plant.  I didn’t want that to be Isabelle.

We got her into her car seat with her book.  When we arrived at the restaurant, she insisted on taking her book out of the car with her.  In fact, she held my mom’s hand as she walked through the parking lot holding on to her board book with the other hand.  (Thankfully, my mom wasn’t as thrilled about the walking reader either and was ready and willing to pick her up whenever I yelled “uncle!”)  But, much to my surprise, Isabelle toddled through the parking lot, one hand in Bubbe’s and one hand on the book, safely.  And of course, as soon as she got into the restaurant, she began reading her book again.

I’m thinking it’s time to pay another visit to Pint Size Productions to get another customized board book.  She LOVES it.  However, before I can justify shelling out another twenty bucks for a personalized board book (that I will author), I think I’ll just print out a bunch of 4×6 photos from Snapfish to see if it has the same effect.

On Sunday morning she stopped walking and reading.  Instead, she transitioned to walking with her hands folded behind her waist.  Not sure where she got that from, but that’s her newest walking “trick.”

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