Yesterday Reece and I headed to Books-A-Million to view some student artwork and to find a new book about tractors. The first book we found was one of those "gimmick-y" books where you press a button and a tractor revvs up. REAL classy to have a toddler pressing this button over and over and over and over in a shop where people go to relax and have a cup of coffee. I could feel their glare. I figured if I didn't make eye contact with them and moved on, their stares wouldn't embarass me! We trapsed through the "beginners book" section, pulling each and every John Deere tractor book off the shelf, flipping through it and tossing it to the side. I'm telling you, it was a tractor war zone in the kids' section!

The BAM worker who was sitting on the floor with us cleaning up our tractor mess was actually quite nice. She made small talk with me and made me feel as though every toddler who came through her section was just like mine!

"Do you like this one sweetie?"
"Yes"
Picking up a gimmick-y tractor book with wheels "Reece, WOW! Look at this one!"
"Yes"

I was honestly beginning to think I was going to have to take out a second mortgage on our house to buy all these darn tractor books when my kid started jumping and dancing and flapping his arms. There it was, a small 6"x6" book called "Tractor".

To say that he loves this book is the understatement of the year. He flips through it and says "Mama, TRACTOR" over and over and over and over. After he's said that a few times (and each time I exclaim back "Wow, Reece! Do you see a tractor? I love you saying tractor!"-- energetically along those lines) he moves on to saying "Mama, MAWNMOWER"--or something like that. Tractors and lawnmowers. This is my life.

In fact, when I woke Reece up for school this morning and gave him the normal "Good morning Reece, how was your sleep?"
He replies, "tractor".
Yesterday he napped with his book and carried it around everywhere with him. While Trey was grilling last night the book almost got dipped into the pool. Oh man, what a travesty that would have been! Note to self: find another one of these books STAT!

I caught these pictures on my cell phone this morning. Little man had pulled himself up onto a patio chair (with book in hand, mind you) and started "reading" about hay balers and diggers. Somehow I convinced him to leave the book in my car when we got to school this morning, but that's only because I told him he could play tractors inside.