Go, Laney. Go!

Dear Laney,

You've been working so hard in kindergarten at learning to read, which, as a bystander, is a wild thing to witness. Having never really thought about it before, I can now say with certainty that the English language doesn't make a damn bit of sense. There are words that make no phonetic sense and letters that rarely behave like you think they will. I personally went on a rant the other day about the insidious nature of the letter "C." I mean, almost everything it does could also be accomplished by an "S" or a "K," except when you need that damn "Ch-" sound. Somehow, you are persevering and learning new words and pronunciation tricks every week.

And last night, you said, "How about I read YOU a story at bedtime?" Well, of course! You picked Go, Dog. Go!, and we settled together into your twin bed and you began to read. I mean really read. A lot of words you knew, and some you had to sound out. 

I was so proud and overwhelmed and excited, I might have even teared up a little. I felt like my heart was going to burst over how hard you were working on deciphering each page. But I'm not going to lie: it was a long process. You'd sound out each word on each page until you made sense of it, then you'd go back and repeat the sentence with the new words figured out. 

I started to doze off. And you started to elbow me. And an hour into the reading, I called out sweetly in the direction of our bedroom: "Hey, Thor? Did you know that Go, Dog. Go! is over 60 pages?" "No! I had no idea!" he called back." "When we get to page 30, I'm going to call you in here so you can have a turn!" I worked with you on pages 1-30, and your dad took 31-64. At least I think he did - I was asleep before he made it to bed. Neither one of us wanted to tell you to quit working, because it seemed like such a momentous moment. 

You're one little girl going into kindergarten. One big reader coming out. 

 Love,
Mom