"See David Read"

David is beginning to read. Sort of. It's kind of hard to tell, actually. He has been memorizing story books since the time he could talk, and now he seems to be memorizing words, but then that's a big part of being able to read. I've been teaching him to sound out the letters when he gets to a word he doesn't know and I'm surprised at how well he's doing.

Actually I am and I'm not. He's working with a wordy gene pool. Not by my part, mind you. If he grows up able to do remarkably accurate foreign accents, has a flair for dancing the Can-Can or to brutally demolish any opponent at badmiton, then we'll know he takes after me. But I'm guessing he got more than his dark, handsome good looks from Daddy, like all the "techno-geek", music and love of words genes. So when he is not working on his preschool "laptop" or rocking out to some song, he has got his nose in a book.

My mom just sent out this great first reader for him (Thanks, Mom!) and you might be familiar with some of the characters from it. There's this kid Dick, his sister Jane and of course their little dog "Spot". You wouldn't believe some of the wacky things these kids get into. These really are great first readers, but they sure do date themselves. David didn't seem to notice too much, but I found Mother dressed much too nicely to be doing housework. Maybe I would enjoy vacuuming more if I wore a dress and heels. Probably not.

But it was pretty cool to overhear David reading to Sofia from the book. She wasn't too riveted by the story line, but I think she enjoyed snuggling up to her big brother on the couch and listening to him tell her a story. Maybe, if I'm lucky, over the years I'll get to witness several more of those moments when they're together, sharing a good book.

So long as they don't get talking and decide that we should name the baby "Spot". Because then they won't be allowed to read together anymore.