Reading skillz

Last night we read a book called This Book is Not a Picture Book! by Sergio Ruzzier. The story itself was fine and the illustrations...let's just say I would like to go back and analyze those a bit more because now that I think about it I'm hoping that they get more and more illustrated as the story is told. The story is about how, from the product description on Amazon they "struggle at first to decipher their book" but "they stick with it, and before long they discover that not only can they read it, but it deserves a place on the shelf with all their favorite picture books" so it would make sense for the illustrations to become more elaborate (and cover more of the page) as the story goes along. I can't remember if that's the case and...that's not the point of this post.

The endpapers (or pastedowns) were phenomenal. 

That, in my opinion, is where the story was—quite literally, but also figuratively. The opening pastedowns drew in the entire family as we tried to decipher what precisely they were saying bcuseae ehty eerw onsennes! 

Nearly every word was scrambled so it took quite a bit of mental power to work out what the story was saying. But the words on the opening pastedowns mirrored the storyline of the book (and were revealed in plain English on the closing pastedowns). 

It was very interesting! 

And, following in the footsteps of my mother (and many other librarians and literacy scholars), I had to annoy my children by pausing between stories to say, "Just wait! I have to check the publication information!"

(I totally understand why my mom always did this...now).

"I just want to see what year this book was published—oh! 2016, so..."

"Wow!" Phoebe interjected. "This book is so old! We're in the 20s now."

And that made me feel old because (a) 2016 doesn't actually feel that long ago, although I recognize that it's a full decade, and (b) somehow my baby who was born in the 2020s is now old enough to recognize that we are in the 2020s (and concludes, therefore, that anything in the 2010 is past its prime, so to speak). 

Anyway, it's a cute book.

*****

"Good morning, Mommy! Happy Pi Day!" Phoebe greeted me this morning. 

She's very excited about pi day. 

She's currently in the kitchen helping Andrew make Yucky Pumpkin Pie. (He was in the kitchen until late last night making key lime pie and banana cream pie—we are doing pi day on full blast this year).  

Does she know what pi is? 

Sort of. 

Alexander is obsessed with pi right now, which probably is surprising to no one. He's been working on memorizing pi using this song:

For her part, Phoebe just...sings random numbers, being sure to throw in a "POINT!" every now and again.

So, no. She has no idea what pi is. But she's sure excited for pie!

And is so happy to be helping in the kitchen. Whenever she helps in the kitchen she's always sure to [get in the way plenty and] ask us, "Don't you just love working in the kitchen with me?"

Yes, baby. Of course. 

She was the one adamant about wanting Yucky Pumpkin Pie. 

Andrew tried sending one of the boys downstairs to fetch a can of pumpkin, but Phoebe quickly volunteered for the task instead. "I can do it!" she squealed. 

She loves getting things from the storage room. Her retrieval skills used to be pretty hit or miss, but her accuracy has improved considerably now that she can read words rather than relying solely on pictures. 

After mixing the pumpkin with the whipped cream, Andrew remembered they needed a box of vanilla pudding to go in next. He went down to the storage room with Phoebe this time, since finding such a specific item seemed a little more challenging. She knows where the canned goods are. But does she know where the tiny boxes of pudding are?

It turns out it was a good thing he went with her because, after showing her where the pudding was, she started looking through the various boxes we have on hand, muttering, "B...B...B...looking for something what starts with B..."

"Why are you looking for something that starts with B?" Andrew asked.

"B for banilla!" Phoebe said (like, duh, Dad). 

She would have been down there all day!