New Routine

For a few weeks now, Helen has insisted on reading several books before bed. In fact, she typically requests that we read every.book.on.her.shelf. This is not too painful, though, since each of her books takes about 10 seconds to read - and I regularly send a stack of the books back into Connor's room so her shelf never gets too full. Sometime last week, Helen decided Ed should be part of our nighttime routine, so she walked into Connor's room saying "booh, booh, Dada, Dada..." and Ed read the requested book.

Last night, I needed to get to the quarterly coop meeting so I was rushing bedtime. Helen would have none of it. When it came time for Ed to read a book to her, she started walking into Connor's room to fetch him, even as I told her that Ed was not upstairs yet. Helen persisted in her calls for dada, until finally I hollered down to Ed to get upstairs and read to her. At one point during her spell of insisting Ed read a book, I thought I had convinced her it wasn't going to happen. She sat down on my lap, but then as soon as I started reading, she said "no", very firmly. And unlike most times she says "no", when she actually means "yes", she definitely meant no.

When Ed arrived, he took the book from Helen, opened the cover, and then she proceeded to point to every animal in "Brown Bear, Brown Bear" and say its name as Ed flipped the pages. I was impressed, since she pretends as if she has no idea what the animals are when I read it to her.

Elaine