Book Worm

Annalee has started reading chapter books.  A whole new world has opened up for her and she is loving it.  We haven't been to the library in a while (the library is being super-mean to me, grr!) and Annalee had to log some reading time for school so I dug out the tote of kids' books that Nathan and I have been saving.  The last time we opened it was to get out the picture books when Annalee was a toddler.  But now it's time for chapter books!  It was like Christmas.  Annalee helped me pull out Encyclopedia Brown, the Lucky books, The Finch's Fabulous Furnace, Laura Ingall's books, and Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle.  When I introduced her to the Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle, she read that Mrs. P's house was built upside-down.  That got a laugh of delight from her and I just swelled inside because I love that she is getting excited about books and enjoying the humor of some of my favorites.  She is always dabbling in some that they didn't have when I was young, like Nancy Clancy and Horrible Harry.

Tonight, on our family walk, Annalee informed me that she didn't want to go to bed tonight.  Instead, she wanted to stay up all night reading.

"But how would you feel in the morning?"

"I would sleep all day," she said.

"So, you're going to stay up all night reading and then sleep all day?" I asked, secretly geeking-out inside because she has turned into a book-loving daredevil, just like her mom and dad!  Of course, I can't encourage staying up all night and sleeping all day so I told her about times I had stayed up late and how I still had to get up and go to school or work the next day.

She said, "What if you read for half the night and then went to bed?"

"I kept trying to go to bed.  I'd say, 'Just one more chapter and then I'm going to bed!' but then I'd read another and another."

"What if you went to bed and then got up in the middle of the night and read until morning?" she asked.

That stumped me.  I had never done that.

"Why not?" she wanted to know.

"Because," I said, "even though I love reading more than I love sleep, I love staying asleep once I am asleep more than almost anything."  Truer words I have never uttered.

Annalee decided her plan was worth a try, though.  So she set her alarm for some time tonight and is planning to get up and read.  Hahaha!  I have a feeling that reading is not the only thing Annalee, Daddy, and I have in common.  I don't think she's going to get up.

"How do you know?" she demanded.

"I know because of how you act every morning when I tell you it's time to get up!"