Benji's bookshelf is reborn

My name is Kate and I am 37. I live in Hawthorn in a tiny old house with my beloved partner Ian and our son Benjamin, who is 2 years and 2 months old.

I work 3 days a week. Benji goes to childcare around the corner on the days I work. He's been going since February last year and seems to love it, although he still gets upset when I leave him there in the morning. As a consequence, I usually board the train in the morning with a heavy heart.

Lately more and more people say to me "You've got your hands full" or "He's a live wire!". Yes he is and I love it. That was until the lovely warm energy flowing through his veins ended up as a whack or a kick, mostly aimed at me. This all started 4 weeks before Christmas and escalated.

Then last Tuesday I lost it. He sunk his teeth into my wrist as I was holding his hand in a toy shop. I was so upset I put back what I'd picked up, left the shop and went to the car. I screamed at him, burst into tears, ranted for a couple of minutes and then gave him the silent treatment. He looked grief-stricken in the review mirror. I felt terrible.

Unprovoked, he said sorry as we neared home. I said "It's allright mate", reached back and stroked his hand and that was that. The next day I bought Toddler Taming and by the second page I had an epiphany - we had to get back into books.

Ben was born surrounded by books and by age 1 he had a formidable collection. We used to go to the library every few weeks. He adored Hooray for Fish, Where is the Green Sheep? and Spot. I made a The Very Hungry Caterpillar cake for his 1st birthday.

Then I went back to work and my time and enthusiasm for books - and the library - waned. TV crept into our daily lives and by the age of 2, our book-future wasn't bright. Muno from Yo Gabba Gabba featured on the 2nd birthday cake - sure he's a great guy but the Muno Cake inspired Muno Talk and lots of Muno TV Watching. And then more TV watching - even I was heavily into What's Your News, Chuggington, Superwhy! and Fresh Beat Band which are excellent programmes but TV nonetheless.

Books are the answer. Toddler Taming says toddlers crave 3 things: attention, time and love and affection. Reading books = my undivided attention for Benji. And I love kids' books - they're easy to read, funny and colourful. And we get to snuggle when we read them. And we laugh and we read them again and he learns new words and we're both blissfully happy.

So on Wednesday night we sank into the couch to read Who Sank the Boat - 5 times. The next night Benji used his new words "donkey" and "knitting" as we read it again. On Friday night he used more new words, "pier" and "butter". Tonight, laughs all round as "pig butter! pig butter!" is squealed in delight. I'm so happy we're back into books.