Books of the Week: Sort of

So, I haven't posted any posts about our books of the week lately, although, Atticus does have a few current favorites. However, instead I have a sort of sad post. Atticus has started tearing his books up. It hurts my heart to think about. But, a few weeks ago, instead of napping, he stayed in his room for 3 hours playing and reading books in his bed. After reminding him twice to take a nap, I realized that if he wants to play quietly, then that was ok. In fact, I was proud that he could entertain himself for awhile quietly. Well, little did I know that later that evening, I would learn that he entertained himself all right...he tore two of his beloved books to shreds. They were both flap books and he had ripped each flap completely off the page. What is worse is that he was the one that showed me the results. He came in grinning like it was a funny thing that he had done. It hurt my heart so much as I had to discipline him and make him pick up each and every piece of paper to throw in the trash. I blamed myself because he is just a 2 year old who had plenty of time on his hands and a lot of curiosity. I decided it was a one time thing; he loves his books and has not been one to just destroy them for no reason. However, about a week ago, he did it to another little flap book. We went through the same discipline process and threw the book away. Well, yesterday he tore up a book that didn't have any flaps. In fact, it was one of his current favorites: Clifford the Big Red Dog. Page by page was ripped out of the book. Ugh. My heart seriously hurt again. He just doesn't understand that these books are GONE and ruined. So, Vic and I finally took the hint and took out every book that was not a board book from his room. We will give him some time and slowly start to introduce them back.

Lesson learned. For us and Atticus. Now, onto the next child-rearing lesson-learning day!