Raise your hand if you've ever found yourself reading to your little one and wanted to chuck the book out the window? I've literally found myself reading a book to her at bedtime and said out loud, "This is the dumbest story ever!". Since she's only 6 months old right now, most of the reading I'm doing is to myself. She doesn't fully understand what I'm saying, so I've found its important for me to pick stories I like too. 

We have the routine of reading books every time before sleep, both naps and bedtime so there are lots of books to be read. In our home, we've found this ritual before bed helps our daughter wind down and know that its time for sleep. Over time, the energy we've invested in creating this ritual has really served us. For us, we've also found that starting with more active books (lift the flaps or pictures of other babies) and then moving to more calming stories has been really helpful for her to work out her pre-sleep wiggles. Here's a sample of a "day in the life" of books we read: