My boy

Henry is getting very interested in reading and books lately, after many months of disinterest. For about 6 months now his bedtime routine has consisted of us saying "it's bedtime!" and him hopping into bed. No rigamarole, no singing, no stories. But I started to worry about the lack of stories, so we started reading downstairs as a family before we went up to bed. Then, about a week ago, he asked me to start reading Harry Potter again. I'd started reading to him late last summer, but it didn't take. This time, though: gangbusters. Now we read a chapter in his bed together before he falls asleep every night, and he regularly pesters me to read to him at other times, too. I can tell he's enthralled by it; when Harry broke a school rule for the first time, he could hardly stand the suspense of hearing what happened and if Harry would get suspended. When Harry and Ron were illicitly walking the hallways of the school late at night, he was so rattled he asked me to stop reading; then begged me to keep going to see how it turned out. I absolutely LOVE sharing this with him.

His own reading is getting better and better, too. He can read Hop On Pop fluently, and likes to show this trick off to visitors, but is reluctant to challenge himself to read a different book-- one he hasn't all but memorized! The other day he said how it was funny that the word "bed" kind of LOOKS like a bed.

But his triumph of the day is as an engineer. A couple of weeks ago I disassembled a pop-up toddler toy that Agatha had stuffed full of Lego guys (pictured above, in two halves, right before he screwed it back together). Switches and parts and plastic pieces popped out all over the place. Since then, the children have enjoyed taking all the pieces out and strewing them all over the place. But today, after lunch, Henry set to work. "Mom, I did it!" he said suddenly-- and he had. He put the whole thing back together and only one little animal doesn't pop up quite as vigorously as he used to. Otherwise, it's completely functional.