No monkey, just books.

Last year I would tell people that Jacqueline wasn't as interested in books as Julia had been at the same age. Well, chalk that up to a flawed memory. Jacqueline wasn't interested yet...

I just asked "Jacqueline, where are you?"

From across the house she says "I'm reading my book."

Despite her "baby" and stuffed monkey the item she brings into her parents' bed is a stack of books. 1am or 2am I hear her pitter patter into my room, around to my side of the bed, she waits, tosses her books on the bed and then climbs in. Julia never did that.

Julia's First Book Report

OK, it's actually copying the words from the book but hey, she's only 5.

She likes it?

Chubby brown boy sees Julia getting into the van after school and says to me, 

"She can read."

"I know" I said as he stopped walking and I stopped strapping Julia in to her booster. 

"She read a whole book" he said with equal parts awe and confusion. 

"She loves it, she does it all the time."

As he turned to walk away he said "She likes it."

I asked Julia who he was. She didn't know his name but knew he was in the 3rd grade 

My little genius is making a name for herself. 

Too smart for my own good

Recent ramblings from Julia & Jacqueline:

1. A couple of days ago I was watching TV. Jacqueline came in the living room babbling away like always. This time she went to the TV, which had captions on (as usual), holding one of Julia's sight word flash cards, she pointed at the subtitles with the card and said "this" and shook the card and said "that". She did it a couple times while I picked my jaw up off the floor and asked her to repeat, "What did you say? She must have done it about 4 times. "This, that." She's 22, almost 23, months old.

2. Julia loves typing on the computer, especially with her Aunt Susie when we Skype. Yesterday she was trying to capitalize the first letter of a word, and somehow knew to hit "caps lock" but she didn't realize that it would capitalize all letters. Susie asked why her last couple of words were in all-caps while I explained internet protocol related to "yelling"/all-caps. I left the room and at some point later she was typing and it was again all capital letters. Tara commented and Julia's response was "They are all capital but I wasn't yelling". Tara was dumbfounded b/c she had not been privy to the earlier conversation. Once that was clarified we both marveled at how quickly Julia processed the concept and used it. She'll be 5 years old on Sunday. Amazing!

Reading saves money

I'm pretty much a failed handyman but it probably has more to do with my inability to finish what I start but yesterday I proved to myself, my wife, and my neighbors that reading is fundamental.

Last year the front axle on my gas mower broke. My immediate response was I'll never fix *that*. So we bought a $40 mower off craigslist. It lasted until 2 weeks ago and it became evident that repairs would cost lots more than the mower so I decided to look at the broken axle. All I needed was a diagram of the parts and ironically, ~$40. One part, some turns of a ratchet and BOOM! My mower is working again.

Happy Wednesday!

"Daddy, it's Happy Wednesday."

"Why do you call it that Julia?"

"Well, last night Aunt Susie typed 'Happy Wednesday' when we were Skyping!"

Blueberries for Sal

This is the book Julia got from Imagination Library yesterday.

Jai & Julia told me she got a new book, but I forgot to ask what it was or look at it. I usually do when I get home from work as I'm excited when it arrives in the mail. However, it was Friday & I was really tired! Growing this baby is exhausting!

This morning walking home from the Y with Julia, we were talking about her new book & I asked her what it was. She said Blueberries for Sal very clearly, no hesitation. Of course I was impressed which I usually am with her verbal skills in general, but she just got this book. Maybe it's not signficant, but it seems amazing to me that she said the title so quickly & easily. Actually her memory is incredible so maybe it's not that earth shattering.

However, more importantly I loved this book as a child! I'm so excited to be able to read it with her as I was so happy when my mom gave Julia "Bread and Jam for Frances" for Mother's Day in May, another favorite of mine.

I'm so grateful & blessed that my child loves reading as much as I do. I'm sure we'll have many opportunities to bond over something, but I'm glad one experience is the wonders of reading wonderful books!

What do you do for fun?

When you're 5 1/2 months old and your Mom and Dad put you in the pack-n-play for some downtime what do you do?

Read, of course.

It is not surprising for us to check to see if Julia has fallen asleep, b/c its really quiet, and we see that she's thumbing through this wonderful soft book, Little Panda. Julia has done this for a couple of months, since she was first able to actually hold one of her soft flip books.

She does this of her own free will. She has bear she can play with and, of course, her feet but she mostly opts for the book.

Its a wonderful thing.