Our little reader

The other night, after a long day of birthday party hopping in New Jersey we stopped at a local diner for dinner. Cole had been such a sport all day, dealing with the hard part of the trip like a champ: Bevin's screams and our frustration with not being able to soothe her (pulling over and taking her out of the car seat to nurse her does not count). We walked into the diner without our usual arsenal of crayons, coloring books and toys. Instead we brought one book and a stuffed animal. It happens to be Cole's favorite book of the moment, one we've read to him countless times in the past few weeks. It's not one we would have chosen to be his favorite, but he likes it, he listens to the words and understands the story and that's what matters. So Keith opens the book and Cole declares that he will read the book to Daddy.

And then he did the most amazing thing, he read the entire book, almost word for word, to Keith (with me watching and listening from across the booth in complete awe). He has done this before on a smaller scale, but never to this degree where he remembered an entire book. I love his enthusiasm for reading and for once I felt a sense of pride in myself for reading to him every day

I can only hope his enthusiasm for reading, his excitement when I bring a book home from the library lasts well into his teenage years - when that zest for reading will come in handy if apathy ever tries to rear it's ugly head.

Cole's reorganized bookshelf…

Here's Keith's instagram photo that I totally stole off the internet. This is what our nights look like. Bevin dances (or nurses) while Cole and I read...