Literary Surprises

I'm still reading The Alchemyst.  I've now advanced to page 46.  I'm on a roll, I tell ya!

At what point do you look at something and decide to scrap it?  I can put a difficult book down and months later come back to finish it just so I can move on to something else.  Why I must finish one before moving on to another, I don't know.  Jer's also since informed me that this book is part of a series. 

Fabulous.

In other news, Lydia knows how to read.  Did you know this?  Because, I did not. 

She hopped up on the couch one morning and instead of pushing a book in my hands, asking if I'd read to her, she skipped over and asked if she could read me Dick and Jane. 

"WELL, OF COURSE!" I said, cheerily, waiting for her latest rendition of what's happening in each picture.  Instead of explaining the illustrations, she took her index finger and ran it along the words reading each word with accompanying dramatic pauses, exclamations and proper inflections to go along. 

I shit you not, I said, "When did you learn to read?" and she quipped back, "In my bed when I read with my flashlight."

....???

That's right. 

Kyra I've been dragging along, kicking, screaming and dramatically passing out while trying to climb brick walls made from compound words and multiple syllables.

Lydia gets the same 20 minutes a night her sister does, to sit in her bed, wind down and "read" books by flashlight.... and she teaches herself to read. 

Lydia's repeated this trick several more times with several more books.  Today, she even brought me a book I know beyond a shadow of a doubt neither Jeremy nor I have read this book to either of the kids before (because, yes, we have that many books), and the sweet child happily plodded along, reading the whole way. 

All her reading, so far, are of the basic nature.  Simple, sound out words.  Still.  It'll be nice to be blessed with a child who doesn't fight me the whole way with this reading business.  I know Kyra's difficulties are neither her fault nor of her own doing, but an easier path the second time around with the second kid will be a nice reprieve. 

So here I have Kyra tearing through all of the Spiderwick Cronicles, Lydia loving every Dick and Jane she can get her hands on, and I'm barely pawing through The Alchemyst. 

Even the kids are showing me up!