They Call It R-E-A-D-I-N-G

There is simply no denying it anymore. Beyond the bedtime stories and hours spent on our laps with her books, there are so many other markers. The road signs. The take-out menus. The TV guide as we scroll looking for shows. Her requests for us to leave some books out for her after we put her to bed, so she "can read them as soon as [we] are gone." EJ, exactly two months shy of her fourth birthday, is a proficient reader. We had just begun to believe it in March, but now, there is no doubt.

She has attended several birthday parties lately, and has loved them all. Since her friend, Nutmeg, turned five and she received a thank you note in the mail, she has looked forward to her note almost as much as the party itself. I remember thinking mail addressed just for me was magical as a kid, and the fact that EJ can (in general) read the mail that comes for her makes it all the more exciting.

In the past week, she has received two thank you notes in her cubby at school for back-to-back birthday parties she attended last Saturday. As soon as I arrived to pick her up, she asked me to open the notes up, and she tore through them with great delight. With the exception of one or two words (i.e., Tonka, would), EJ read the following notes completely by herself.

Dearest EJ,

Thank you so much for coming to Antonio's birthday party and for the AWESOME Tonka Trucks! We loved them, and we loved your home made birthday card too!

With love,
Antonio and Family

Dear EJ -

I loved the glitter kit you got me for my birthday. Thank you for coming to my party & making my birthday so special! It would not have been a great party without you.

Love,
Belle

I can't make this stuff up. Of course, I'm proud of her, but really, I'm more flabbergasted than anything. We have always told her about letters and phonics and such when she has asked or it has been part of some fun game we are playing, but really, truly, we have not "prompted" reading or worked on it in any deliberate way. She's just picking this stuff up, which I guess was also the case for her dad, a very early reader.

It falls in line with other milestones she has hit lately, including an ability to solve line mazes on her own (two today while at lunch at Leona's), or the way she can now conceptualize her own thinking about things. The other day, for example, while we were up in Kenosha visiting my folks, I told her that if she took a nap, it would seem like her daddy's train arrived even faster, because she wouldn't be paying attention to the clock while she slept. She asked me if her sleeping would make the train move faster, and when I explained that it wouldn't actually go faster, it would just feel like the time went quicker to her, like magic, she replied, knowingly, "Oh, I've got it. The magic is in my head. I will think it goes faster in my own head."

As I've heard stories about my childhood or Mike's, I've often wondered how much of the developmental stuff is on target, not because my mom or my mother-in-law would fabricate details, but primarily because things move so fast, it is really hard to keep track of it all. I'm making note of this reading feat now, in this blog, for all to read, so someday, I will believe myself when people ask when EJ started really reading well and I say, "Three."