Reading

Miguel has been reading voraciously for the past few months. I remember how amazed I was when he first tookthe cut-out alphabet letters and said, "Let's spell pot." (M-A-R-I....nooooo!) He then pronounced each letter sound and spelled pot, cat, bat and a whole lot of other words.

Turns out that Ninang has been drilling him with letter sounds every morning as she brings him to school. So naturally she wasn't as surprised as I was when I told her that he was spelling on his own initiative. I excitedly got out the phonics books so that he can practice, but he quickly tired of them. It turns out that his tastes are more, uh, mature. (I once told a friend that Miguel liked adult books, and my friend raised an eyebrow. Apparently he thought that "adult" involved an "X".)

Miguel's favorite books now are those hardbound coffee table books from Reader's Digest (yes, my mom bought loads of them!) with titles like "How Did It Really Happen" and "Great Mysteries of the Past." I'd come out of the shower and he'd have a book in front of him, reading words no matter how long or complicated. Now he's an expert on the Titanic, Atalntis, Stonehenge, The Big Bang, Space Exploration, Mary Queen of Scots, the Taj Mahal, and not to mention Pompeii (see previous entry). Okay fine, he'll probably turn out to be a nerd just like me but at least he's got a sense of humor (again, see previous entry).

My bedside is starting to look like a library, with books piled so high that they obstruct the lamplight. Every night he insists that I read all the books until morning, or "until you run out of laway." Sweet little bugger isn't he, but how can I say no?

Pompeii

Let me tell you about the most ridiculous song Miguel has come up with so far. It has a pretty repetitive, uncomplicated tune and he sings all the lines in the same rhythm, except for the fourth line.

The ashes were falling
The children were dying
The people were exploding
Pompeii, happy Pompeii

Pompeii is exploding
Mount Vesuvius is erupting
And the children are dying

He sounds pretty cute when he sings it. I tell him it's a good thing that it happened a long time ago.