Reading Her First Words

April 3, 2007
I sat down with Tiny tonight to read her a couple of books just before we got her ready for bed. One of the books - her favorite of the recent library loans - is a book with pictures of dogs made from various fruits and vegetables. When we first brought it home, she was simply intrigued with the fact that dogs were made out of vegetables. In the past week, however, she's noticed the words associated with each image: "Bad Dog" and "Mad Dog" and "Chilly Dog," etc. Last night, she wanted me to help her read the words. We started with "Bad Dog." She proceeded to sound out the letters. "Buh" "Aaah" "Duh." Putting them together, "BaaaahhDuh." Then more quickly "Bad"! Very exciting. She smiled. She moved to the next picture and next little word: Mad. Again "Muh" Aaah" "Duh" And then "MaaaahDuh" Followed by "Mad." Again, she was tickled with herself. We continued and I helped a bit with a few of the bigger, more complicated words. She quickly tired of the exercise and decided to relax and enjoy my interpretive reading of "The Baby Beebee Bird."