in which i am most earnestly ordered about

[ontology]

A conversation just occurred between myself and my two-year-old sister, Leandra.

She had been put in her crib to sleep, and I asked her for a goodnight hug, a kiss, a nuzzle... She finally got exasperated and said, "No! I'm reading a book!" and proceeded to do exactly that. Her crib is pretty much carpeted with books, kind of like, um, the floor next to my bed. (A few of them stay on the bed itself, but end up getting pushed off by sleep-flailing me, or the cats.) 

When she finished reading, she proceeded to pick up all of the books and catalogue them: "a book, and another book, and another book, and another book, and another book, and a two book, and a three book, and a li-berry book" -- then she corrected herself, "--and a kitty li-berry book, and a little panda book, and a spider book..." She looked at the spider book, then opened my hand and firmly placed the book therein. "Nini, read it."

However, when I opened the book -- which contains photographs of spiders named after objects, the object, and then names the spider (for example wolf and wolf spider) -- she proceeded to read it to me -- entirely correctly.

And when we were finished, she turned to Heidi, our other sister, who was getting ready for bed nearby, handed her a new book, and ordered her to read that one.

This child? Whom you may also remember loves Rupa & the April Fishes, the Paper Raincoat (especially "Sympathetic Vibrations", which she calls "oh-oh"), joyously roudy Newfoundland band Great Big Sea (she can sing half of their songs), the Sparrow Quartet, and Benny Goodman? Is me, 2.0. (When I was two, story has it that I walked into my father's office while he was burrowed in innumerable graduate school studies, asked him to read me a book, and when he refused several times, I reached up, closed his clearly boring schoolbook, said, "the end", and handed him my book again: "Read it!") 

Comments

[wanderlight.livejournal.com]

Dear, this entry just made me SQUEE OUT LOUD.
If it's all right with you, I think I will save a copy so that I can read it when I need something to cheer me up. :D

♥!

PS CAN YOUR FAMILY ADOPT ME PLEASE. Do all of your siblings love reading?

[faeriemaiden.livejournal.com]

YAY. I am in the business of cheering Ritas up!

I ABSOLUTELY VOLUNTEER TO ADOPT YOU although there isn't really anyplace to sleep since my room is not small enough for an extra mattress as it was when Kyra visited. Alas, however, my other two siblings are not big readers. It is very distressing. My brother is an Asperger's kid and very typical of such -- he likes to read manuals, and occasionally comics, and once in a while a novel really gets him, but not that often. He prefers cartoons and video games. :/ My sister has vision issues that make it difficult for her to read until they finish being treated, but honestly I don't see her trying that hard, either. She's loved some books read aloud to her, like A Little Princess and the Little House books, but mostly she just reads her Jonas Brothers tour book and watches an obscene amount of television.

My parents are big readers, though -- my father even though it takes him weeks and weeks to read a book because of his vision issues. We have over three thousand books in our house. It is kind of amazing. My mother was seriously contemplating making a card catalogue for our home library, except that LibraryThing doesn't have useful print-outs for the cards. Both parents read aloud to me all the time for most of my childhood... it kind of tapered off when I turned twelve or thirteen, but it was more of a natural thing born of wacky sleep schedules (and no more assigned read-alouds from our school curriculum) and also parents not being able to keep up with me.

[aliseadae]

Your sister /rocks/. She reminds me of myself at age two (well, based on what my parents have told me.) I apparently used to enjoy sitting in a crib filled with books.

Sadly your picture did not work for me. I was sent to a blank page when clicking on the link.

[faeriemaiden.livejournal.com]

I learnt to read at four, probably because my parents didn't have time to read to me as much as I wanted to know stories! Alas, I can't brag that I taught myself to read, because in no way did I, but I slept with my one-volume edition of The Lord of the Rings next to my pillow every night for about two years...

I uploaded the picture to a different directory and it ought to work now.

[burningstarsxe.livejournal.com]

I love how brilliant kids can be. My siblings still surprise me all the time by how awesome they are.

[charismitaine.livejournal.com]

That is just too adorable for words! <3

[faeriemaiden.livejournal.com]

Trust me, if I posted every time Leandra did something impossibly adorable, the entire blogosphere would have died of cute by now. :D

[ressie-noldo.livejournal.com]

this is the most adorable thing that ever adorabled.

[faeriemaiden.livejournal.com]

Well naturally! ;p

I am considering selling tickets to pay for college.

[barefoottomboy.livejournal.com]

Excuse me while I melt into a puddle of cuteness-induced wibbling....

So. Adorable. :-D

[pearlessence.livejournal.com]

That is too, too precious!

[bornofstars.livejournal.com]

omg, if only my sister were so endearing! Leandra's so awesome now, who knows what heights of awesome she'll reach later? I too wish I had your family.