My little "reader"

As most of you reading this know, my little girl is an avid reader. Given the choice she'll pick books over toys, movies, etc. any day of the week. I LOVE this trait in her, but boy, we need some new books. She reads them all, but she does have favorites, so you read the same ones over and over and over again. Her current favorite is Curious George Goes to the Hospital. It is FORTY FOUR pages long- and she'd have you read it to her several times a day if you agreed. We don't agree. We say "Once a day". So the other day she thought, heck, if they won't read it to me I'll just read it to myself.

I've talked before about this child's ability to memorize, but a 44 page book? Yep! We had to help her out on a few lines, and she left out a few sentences, but basically she read the whole thing. Today when I was getting ready, I caught her in her little chair, reading it to herself again. To me this is some kind of freak "talent" that may or may not serve her in any way in the future, but right now it's SO much fun to listen to her. She reads all of her books with the same expressions I use when I read them to her. She even changes voices for characters sometimes. It's a hoot! My fear is that when she actually starts learning to read she'll become frustrated trying to sound out words instead of just "reading" the whole book from memory. We'll see.

The other picture I took is from today- we were heading out to pick up Daddy for our weekly Wednesday lunch. I just thought she looked so cute. I know, I dress her the way I'd like to dress but don't. Kid clothes today are just SO adorable- I can't resist!

Some folks have asked how potty training and the big girl bed are going... potty training is pretty much done, in my book. She's been going on her own without accidents since mid-October. She just wears a diaper at night, and it's 50/50 if she wakes up dry. Until it's 90/10 waking up dry, we'll stick with the diaper. :) The big girl bed is great! Except for the one time she fell out the first night, she's stayed put and we've had no problems at all. She LOVES it and even "pretend sleeps" in there sometimes for fun. :) She knows she can get out to use the bathroom, but she still calls out to us if she needs to go. It must just feel wrong to get out of the bed- my little rule follower (just like Mommy!). The best part about it to me is that you can cuddle really close right before bed- that's nice.

On another positive note, we went to the doctor yesterday to finish up our final "make up" vaccination shots and to get a flu shot. Reading Curious George Goes to the Hospital every day for the last month must have made an impression- she was actually excited to go! She continued to be excited even as we went in the room to get the shots. She just looked at me and grinned. The nurse was super fast, and Allison didn't even flinch. She immediately looked at the nurse and said, "Cookies?" She knows the drill! I was SO proud of her and SO happy that it wasn't like the last 100 times we've gotten shots. She usually screams before we even get in the room, and I have to hold her down while she screams some more, and then I have to hold back my own tears cause I feel so horrible for her. My, this was quite a nice change! :)


Okay- time to go get some housework done while she's sleeping! :) Happy Wednesday, everyone!