Proud proud proud

I am such a proud Mommy! Today, Kate READ!!!! I was beginning to wonder when this would start happening - she knows all her letters, all their sounds, and how to write all of them and identify them. She has been very into practicing writing so I figured the reading might come up soon, but I really wanted it to be at her instigation, not mine. Well, today she looked at my sweatshirt and asked me "Mommy, what does that say on your sweatshirt?" I asked her "what do you think it says?" and she looked at the first letter, "B" and yelled "BOSTON!!!!". Good guess, given my affinity for that town, but it was the wrong answer. I crouched down and held out the sweat shirt and said "why don't you try sounding out each letter and see if you can tell me what it says". She did just that! After sounding it out aloud, she proudly exclaimed "BUTLER!!!!!!!!!". I wish I could have captured that look on her face when she realized that she figured out what it said all on her own and was right! She was totally elated. I cheered her on like crazy and we high-fived all over the kitchen. Kate, jumping up and down, actually said "Let's read some MORE!!!!!!" Sweeter words were never spoken! :)

Not one to close a window of opportunity, I went upstairs and selected a book that we never read, but is relatively easy. I remember that my first book was a Dr. Seuess book, so I chose "Fox in Sox". I literally never read it to her because, honestly and maybe I am odd for this, I really don't care for Dr. Seuess books! Nevertheless, Kate climbed on my lap and proceeded to sound out and read 5 pages from "Fox in Sox". I had to explain to her the "kn" sound (Dr. Seuess books have all those silly made up words), but she did really well! She was so patient, did not get frustrated, and recognized the words on the later pages as ones from earlier pages, so did not have to sound them out as much. I noticed that she would try to guess the next word - for instance, one stanza is "fox in box" and she would say "Fox in (and then insert the word "a") box". It makes grammatical sense to her, which is great - but we worked on just reading the words and trusting the letters and not anticipating the next word too much because it could be a surprise! We called her Daddy at work and also Nia and Gramps in Florida and she read a page to each of them aloud, sounding out the words along the way. They cheered her on and it just made Kate beam.

I am just so proud of her and excited. I will admit it is largely because I ADORE reading and it was a big contributor to joy in my own childhood - and in my whole life. Books are so wonderful and I hope that Kate gets a fraction of contentment from reading that I get. Plus, let's face it - it is exciting to have her have another way to independently occupy her time! I cannot be the cruise director ALL the time! :)

I look forward to lots of time snuggled on the arm chair poring over letters. I am sure there will be bouts of frustration and testing of patience, but what a milestone for Kate to reach! Yay!