The. Best.

It's happening: my kid's getting smart. Not by other-kid standards, I don't even want to know about that and make it a point not to compare. I simply mean that he's starting to connect mental dots, figure things out, and to witness this is blowing my mind. It started a couple of weeks ago when he first noticed that many of his books are inscribed by the person who gave them to him. He'd run his fingers over the writing, mesmerized, trying to figure out what was going on there. Then he started pointing to the printed words in his picture books while saying, "Doo doo do. Do do doo." That's how he reads to us, apparently. Now he does this thing where he'll hold up one of his plastic animals and point to a piece of paper, so we can write down the animal's name. He'll point to the word and make an animal sound. Never mind that the sound almost never matches up with the word he's pointing to, he's demonstrating an awareness of what letters and words mean. That reading is something. Holy hell, why didn't anyone tell me how thrilling this Mama business could be? It was one thing when he figured out how to sit up, or say my name but this... this is a whole new level.

This latest discovery is about the most magical thing in my life right now, including Downton Abbey (but come on, even though you just knew Matthew and William were going to emerge at the talent show didn't it give you the crazy goosebumps anyway? And is Anna not the greatest human being? That show owns me). But really.

That reminds me of a vow I've been meaning to make to HR since he was born:

Dear HR, as long as you are under my care I promise to never censor or restrict your reading. As long as you read, I don't care what it is. I may try to encourage you to read things that don't interest you, and I may read whatever you're reading first or alongside so we can talk about it if your choice is particularly concerning, but as long as you're reading, that's good enough for me. There are a million things in print that are disturbing or scary or I worry about you being exposed to, but just because you read them doesn't mean you'll take them to heart. Information is good. Communication is good. Please love books forever. Love, Mama

 Or, if you're reading this now,

Doo do doo. Do do doo doo. Baa baa. Ah-ya-ya, Mama