In the past five years and change, I have often read Hayley a book or two at bedtime. I’ve frequently read books to her during the day, especially when she comes home from school on library day or when we go to the public library ourselves.

Tonight, for the first time ever, Hayley sat down and read a book to me. She didn’t recite it from memory – we had never read it before. She read every word perfectly and needed no help. She paused at “zig zag” and looked at me, but rather than tell her, I asked her to try, to go ahead and sound it out. And she did.

My little girl read her first book for real tonight. I was so excited and so proud that I nearly cried.

Breanna isn’t reading yet, of course, she’s only two. However, she’s finally starting to enjoy having books read to her. For a long time, she wouldn’t tolerate it, preferring to simply look at the pictures on her own. Now she’s starting to learn her letters, a combination of my efforts, Hayley’s enthusiasm, and the PBS show Superwhy. She’s always ecstatic to point out letters in books, stores, anywhere. She’ll finally let me read to her, as though she finally understands that the words aren’t a distraction from the pictures, but rather tell the story itself. Several times a day I sit down as she asks, “story?” and plops a book in my lap.

I always hoped I would raise a little family of bookworms. I think we’re off to a good start.

I titled this “catching up” but I’m not all that sure there’s a whole lot of anything to catch up on, really. Not because I’m sitting here and staring into space, but nothing out of the ordinary has happened. Let’s see what I can think of though, because going days without blogging is not normal for me and I’d like to get back into the swing of things.

1. I’m still reading Wicked which is annoying because it’s so good that I should have finished it by now. Unfortunately, I had to put it aside from time to time to do things like work and whatnot. I’m less than a hundred pages from the end now, and so on top of things like life getting in the way of reading, I also hit that point where I want to finish it but I also don’t want it to end. It happens every single time I really love a book. It’s been interesting to read because in The Wizard of Oz you just automatically hate the Wicked Witch of the West, but the book tells you the whole story of her life and, well, she’s a really awesome character.
2. I hurt my back yesterday. I was trying to carry Breanna and her sled up the stairs and she was slipping. I went to heave her up with one arm onto my hip, just like I do all the time, but something in my back went *sproing* and now it hurts. Nothing makes you feel old quite like throwing out your back or (as I do once every six weeks) your neck.
3. Breanna has become obsessed with snakes and biting. She’s been interested in snakes for awhile but the biting factor is pretty new. I think it may have come from an episode of Diego or Dora. Every single day she’ll suddenly ask me, “Mommy? Snake a-bite me?!” I reassure her that I won’t let any snakes come and bite her. Then she’ll ask, “Mommy, snake a-bite you?” and I’ll tell her I’ll be careful not to let them bite me either. The other night George and I were watching Snakes on a Plane again on the movie channel and I said it would be really bad for Breanna to wake up and walk into the living room because she would have been traumatized for life.
4. In between work, I pop over to Facebook and obsessively check to see if it’s my turn in any of my numerous Scrabulous games. I am hooked. I am also discovering that I’m not as good at Scrabble as I used to be once upon a time. I don’t know if I lost part of my brain cells or what, but I am winning only one of nine games right now, and in the other eight I’m not only losing, but I am losing spectacularly. I want to blame it on the whole “my brain has never been the same since giving birth and being sleep deprived” but just about everyone that I’m playing right now is also a mother so I don’t think it’s much of an excuse. Bah.
5. A friend of mine posted this video of Harry Potter puppets and I nearly peed my pants because it was so funny.

   I have had “Snape, Snape, Severus Snape” stuck in my head since 10 pm last night.

6. It is -10C with some light snow this morning, but with the wind it feels like -525C with huge swirls of snow sweeping up into the air. Every year my tolerance for winter gets lower and lower.
7. I need another coffee.

If you have kids who need to be entertained or if you just want to be mesmerized for awhile, check out this cute and hilarious puppy who will clean your monitor from the inside by licking it.

Hayley and Breanna – especially Breanna – lost their minds over it.