Nature Versus Nurture

Adoption really brings the nature versus nurture debate to the forefront of your life. People always comment on how adorable Little Bug is, which I can take no credit for. But when it comes to things like his personality, some of that has to be a result of how we are raising him (ahem, spoiled) as well as a result of his innate personality, which I can again take no credit for.

Before I became a mom, I had lots of plans for my son, how he would act, what he would like, etc. Of course, children do and like whatever they want, so I learned quickly that my plans for my child were going to be less me and way more him.

Take, for example, books.

I love to read. I read and read and read. I love to talk about books. I love to think about books. The discipline on my degree actually say "Literature," and let me tell you, I thought I was pulling one over on everyone by getting a degree in reading Shakespeare. I've made a career out of reading (although, sadly, not reading Shakespeare). I assumed that my son would be a voracious reader.

And he wasn't. In fact, for the first couple years of his life, books that didn't pop up and sing the Wonder Pets song were of little to no use to him. It broke my heart, but I persisted. Each night we "read" a couple books. He wasn't interested.

Then one night a few months ago, he sat still through a book. Then another, and another, and another. Since that night, we read four books a night and tons throughout the day. My kid loves them. He has favorites. He requests "Night Night, Train" and "Moon" daily. He delights when he finds "Pop Hop Hop" or "Bee Bim Bop." The kid loves his books, and he loves the time we spend together reading them.

And seriously, so do I.

Yesterday after his nap, Little Bug didn't come out of his room. A rare occurrence for him. When we checked on him, we found him amongst a huge pile of books, happily thumbing through them.

I'm beginning to think I might have a book worm after all.

So was it always in his nature to like books, or have we nurtured it enough to help him develop a love? Or is it both? Like most debates, I don't have an answer. But who really needs an answer when there's "Good Night, Moon" to read three more times?