Cherish the little ones

Colleen and I are sitting at the kitchen table. It's quiet.

I look over at her and watch her reading and I can't help but smile. She's so intent on her book.

I whisper to her: "Psst." She looks up. I go on, "I like having little girls around. Little girls are awesome."

Instead of complaining that I've called her little, which she is known to do, she looks back at me, unimpressed, and whispers softly, "Reading my book."

She won't be 8 forever, this I know, just like she wasn't 4 or 5 for long in the grand scheme of things. But I'll always think of her this way, just like I remember Elizabeth as a little girl.

Blogworthy

So many moments have been blogworthy in the past month but I have failed to record them here. I'm waiting for laundry and nothing is on t.v. so I find myself without excuse.

Colleen was reading the back of her Tangled DVD (without pause or hesitation I might add - she's a great reader). One phrase caught my attention and I asked her what an "unlikely duo" means. She said "a duo is two people performing together to share their talents and unlikely means that you wouldn't put them together normally but it actually makes sense this one time."

I think she gets it. Again. I was going to list the other dates I made a post similar to this, but going through them I realize there are too many. Just take my word for it.

Elizabeth's turn

The setting: Elizabeth is reading in the upper bunk. I'm reading to Colleen who is in the lower bunk. Colleen has a whole pile of books she wants me to read. I'm exhausted and decide that one story is all I can do. She's obviously disappointed. I have a great idea and say, "Maybe Elizabeth can read you some of her book."

The comeback from Elizabeth: "MOM! Are you insane?!? This is the Klingon Dictionary!!"

I'm sure it's pretty easy to imagine the pre-teen inflection associated with the italics and CAPS in that quote.

A little knowledge ...

Colleen and I were in the grocery store today, with a coupon for tortilla chips. We were trying to decide which ones to get, when Colleen read the labels and said: "Get that one, mommy. It has zero trains in it!"

Almost-reader Colleen

Colleen has been making leaps and bounds with her pre-reading skills.

Many, many times in the past couple of months she has asked us "how do you spell... [insert any random thing within her sight line here]?" but she's branching out on her own now. She's taking her best guess from a few letters.

Today on a trip to the zoo, we had some funny ones. We parked in front of a sign that said "Remember you are parked in the Gibbon Lot." Well, Colleen told me she was glad we were going to get Dippin' Dots (that really frozen pellet ice cream). I told her not today. She angrily pointed, "But that sign says Dippin' Dots!!" There was some foot stomping and hrmph-ing. She certainly likes her sweets.

And later we stopped to have a snack at an eating area and she asked me, "What's a zoo coffee?" She was reading the "Zoo Cafe" sign.

This reminds me that we need to find her a preschool for this fall.

The dangers of a reading child

Cate and Colleen were in Creative Kids Stuff earlier this afternoon, and they had some books on sale. So, naturally, Colleen wanted one.

"No, Colleen," Cate said, as she relates the story. "It's a workbook."

The workbooks are basically homework exercises. Elizabeth and Robert have been through many a workbook in the past few years.

"But Mom," Collen said, "it says 'preschool' on it and I'm going into preschool next year."

Next thing you know, she'll know how to spell, too, and we'll have to change how we talk around her even more.

What reading level is required to put someone to sleep?

Colleen seems to be able to go to sleep with someone of a fourth-grade level reading out loud to her. Robert brought a very nice reading progress report home with him from school today that has him reading at a fourth-grade level.

We got a full display of this tonight, as Robert and Colleen kicked Cate out of their room at bedtime, and Robert read poems to his little sister. Cate and I heard one of our favorites, Ickle Me, Pickle Me, Tickle Me Too, in which Robert didn't even hesitate with the words "mulligan stew."

After that poem, Robert came out to ask us if we'd heard it, and I went back in with him to "close" bedtime and get what I was sure would be an easy save. Colleen surely wouldn't need more than a couple verses of Silent Night and she would be out like a light.

Except when I got in there, Colleen was already in her bed, out like a light. So Robert gets a complete-game win.

Reading together

Sometimes siblings can do things together...

a) quietly, like reading a book they both like

and

2) without poking each other in the eye or complaining about what the other one is doing (or not doing, as the case may be).

Refreshing. And worth documenting here.