Enjoy the wow!

Day 4 of 31 at TWT!

"Can I take this other books to Daddy's den?" Rainbow Girl is clutching a pile of the little paper books Sis colored at the beginning of remote kindergarten in her tiny hands. 

He doesn't sound like he's on a call right now. "Sure!" I'm amazed at how she's progressed from simple words a year ago to the giant, mostly correct sentences she uses now. 

She toddles off in her wiggly way, floppy paper book pages trying to spill out of her arms. The joyful thumps of her little feet fill the house as she rounds the corner and plunks herself down at Husband's feet as he navigates emails and helpdesk tickets from multiple monitors. 

 

Opening her mouth much wider than necessary, she takes an exaggerated breath, holds the book out with the front cover up, and declares, "This is...     the green book" in the overly serious, imperial tone she uses while "reading" something. Her blue eyes widen as her dainty fingers carefully find the bottom corner, grasp the pages, and open the book, holding it with outstretched arms for a minute before pulling it back to a more natural reading position. Her brow furrows as she contemplates the picture in the middle of the page. "The...     apple...    is green!"

She plops the paper book down on her lap with an overly dramatic amount of force. Those still-babyish fingers fiddle with the corner of the page again and successfully turn to the next page. Those adorable eyes pop wide open again and the stately tone continues, "The... turtle is green." She switches back to her regular, sweet, high-pitched voice and her face scrunches into her biggest smile, "For Daddy!" (Turtles are his favorite animal!) After briefly glancing at me to show her pride at remembering that special fact, she whips her head back to the book, flips another page, and returns to her dignified reading voice. "The fwrog is green!"

With each new page, she carefully peers at the picture, then touches the words at the bottom with a chubby finger as she "reads" in that much-too-serious-for-a-two-year-old declarative tone. "The... wleaf is... green." Fiddle-grasp-flip. "The alligator! is guh-REEN!" Another switch back to her regular baby-voice for some more commentary: "I don't like alligators! They're sharp!" 

Upon finishing that book, she unceremoniously tosses it aside and grabs another from the tilting pile on her lap. "Now the ORANGE one!" More distinguished reading-tone with occasional interjections of regular sweet-voice, more painstaking page-flipping, more running her chubby pointer finger across the words.

I just stand at the door of the den and take it in, giggling with a full heart. Two years ago, she was just a little snuggle-bundle transitioning from preemie clothes to the smallest newborn clothes. As one of our favorite Daniel Tiger songs says, it's time to enjoy the WOW. <3