I remember those days! I bet I could recite many Dr. Seuss books from memory. It does get better when the interest moves on to chapter books. The Hobbit and Narnia are much more thrilling than The King's Stilts (a favorite bedtime book of DS, when he realized it would take us extra long to read it!)

FWIW, my DS6, who could never get enough of us reading to him as an infant/toddler, became a very early reader himself. At some point, we did start tracking each word with our fingers while reading.