Reading with Little Boy

Procrastinating is what I am doing at the moment. I am working on my final uni assignment for this semester and find it both boring and intriguing at the same time. It is an essay on cognitive development. Children in general interest me - their differing behaviours and reactions, how they think and interpret situations. Writing about it, on the other hand, is blah. I am merely repeating what others have written before me.

Little Boy (formerly Toddler) and I love to read together at bedtime. If it is not too late we will always read at least one story, but if he gets to bed on time we read three, and if he gives me big smoochy kisses and hugs I might be convinced to read a fourth! A current favourite is 'Boris Monster : Scared of Nothing', and another is the 'Wiggly Word House' (we have read this so much I groan when he pulls it out of the shelf, but I still read it). Last night we were reading a Dora the Explorer seek and find book, another one that has been a long time favourite of his and makes me groan when I see it. Sometimes when I get bored with a book we make it silly. In the Dora book we pretend that what we have to find is called something else, e.g. a book is an elephant, a ruler becomes a chicken, a dog becomes a boot. Since I love to hear him laugh, and he thinks games like this are pretty damn funny, it makes reading the book (for the thousandth time) much more enjoyable.

Anyway, all this reading on cognitive development also makes me pay attention to how Little Boy views things, and he is of an age where I can ask him questions about why he thinks something is what it is. In this case, he showed me a picture of a turtle and said 'this is a turtle'. Of course I immediately said 'no, it's a banana' and was rewarded with a giggle, but then I asked him 'How do you know it's a turtle?' We were silly for a bit longer, and then he pointed to it and said 'it's legs'
Me 'because they are short?'
Little Boy 'yes....and his thing on his back'
Me 'the shell? That's called a shell'
Little Boy ' yes, his shell'.
He looked at the pic for a few seconds more and then announced 'and his googly eyes!'
Of course that set us both laughing.

I love reading books with my Little Boy