Reading

Amelia used to be quite content to look at books and point out specific items to be named. Then she graduated from that stage and realized that just about every book has a story (not necessarily a plot) and can be read to her. The sponge she is, she remembers what was read to her and will get upset if you don't read the exact word. Sometimes she just corrects you, sometimes she makes an "eh" noise, or "eh eh" if you're not catching on. Every now and then, and it's usually before bed, she will have a meltdown over a missed word. This occured with her Pooh book when her finger was covering a crucial word and I read, "tired head" and should have known it was "sleepy head". Through tears, Amelia corrects me, "Sleepy head! Sleepy head" Pooh can rest his sleepy head! hoo hoo [crying noises]." It was terrible because no amount of apologizing or re-doing will comfort her. Sometimes accidentally skipping a page also results in a meltdown with absolutely no antidote. Poor thing. Fortunately she isn't a destructive drama queen and we are limited (right now at least) to tears and whining and just a little bit of page flaring.

Thanks to her ever improving speech skills she can let us know exactly which books she wants to read at any given moment. She usually just gets them herself, but if she's strapped into her high chair, she is stuck requesting them, and she uses the entire title sometimes which is impressive (to me at least). An example of this is her aforementioned book when she will say, "Pooh Loves You book please." She is still working on certain words. Pooh's sticky hands (from the honey, of course) sometimes sounds like stinky hands, which I find funny.

She has multiple books of certain characters like Pooh and Peter Rabbit, so she will sometimes pick up on distinctions and start referring to those books. One of her current favorites is, "Big Peter Rabbit book from Grandma!"

Of course, her language skills have allowed her to start asking for all sorts of things and demanding may not be an overstatement at times. (1-2-3 game!) Other times, it's just a running commentary on what's going on like, "Go to Nana's in Mommy's car. Sit in chair in Mommy's car. Sit in car seat in Mommy's car. Amelia's chair!"

She will recite passages of her books, like in Clifford Wants a Cookie, she'll "read" We need egg, and butter and some sugar too .... so cute, especially because she will look at me with the biggest smile, so proud of herself. Despite all the language development and recitation, when she does read to herself it's still in her own language with very few or even no English words. Amazing and adorable.

[pictures dated 1/5 & 1/3/08]