Nursery Rhymes...Oh Nursery Rhymes

I had to post about this because its a nightly ritual now in my house. My sister, a few months ago, got a book for my son with beautiful illustrations of nursery rhymes called My Nursery Rhyme Collection (A Hinkler Book). It has been a favorite book of my son's for months now and he likes to read it as much as humanly possible...so much so I read 145 pages of nursery rhymes a night...and no I am not kidding.

I don't mind reading (unless my voice caves). I absolutely love that my son will not only sit down for that long but is also enjoying being read to. I remember as a child my Mom reading to me and she did that just about everyday. I think it started my love of reading and I probably read early because she did that.

There are the fun nursery rhymes like 'Wee Willie Winkie" and when he goes "upstairs and downstairs in his night gown", I'll tickle my son going up and going down on his little tummy, which he LOVES. There are also some of the nursery rhymes that aren't so nice...face it all nursery rhymes are not so nice just like the Grimm's Brother Fairy Tales. So instead during 'Sing A Song of Six Pence', I'll "G" rate it a little and say, "kissed on her nose" instead of "pecked off her nose". Yeah I am fibbing a bit on that one and typically I am not too high strung on "G" rating everything, but it does sound a bit better doesn't it?

I also love it when my son asks my husband to read this book. These are nursery rhymes he did not grow up with. He lived in Russia and never heard of Humpty Dumpty or Jack Sprat, which baffles me. He'll be reading the rhymes to my son, look up and say "uh..what? This doesn't make sense." Its amusing. I especially love hearing him read Peter Piper or Betty Botter, because he's a smidge worse then I am reading those. Can you read Better Botter?

Betty Botter bought some butter
But she said the butter's bitter,
If I put it in my batter
It will make my batter bitter,
But a bit of better butter
Will make my batter better,
So she bought some better butter
Better than the bitter butter,
And she put it in her batter
And her batter was not bitter,
So 'twas better Betty Botter
Bought a bit of better butter.

I am not sure how long this nursery rhyme phase will last, but I love it. It gives me that special time to sit down with my son and read, read, read (sounds like Wheels on The Bus...I am going nuts). I think its just those types of moments that eventually your kid will remember just like I remember with my Mom and cherish later on down the road. For now...I am eating up those little moments in time like candy...even if its 145 pages of silliness.