Tightnen Keen and Ecsalators

Shortly after Cal’s ability to read books not necessarily by memory but by sounding out the word really took off, Dan introduced a new activity to the Leatherman evening.  He puts Cal’s brown “reading” chair (one of those Land of Nod cushiony toddler chairs) in front of the couch facing it and tells the kids to go pick out a couple of books each to read aloud.  As they select their books, he announces who will go first that evening and then says it over and over so as to reduce the size and pain of a blow-up from the one not going first.

So while Cal can actually read his books, Ella can’t… nor can she “read” them from memory like he used to and still can… nor does she really “read” anything that we can fully comprehend.

Last night, Ella chose to “read” the books “Spooky Sounds” (about Lightening McQueen and Mater chasing down the source of a spooky sound) and “Corduroy” (about a teddy bear’s night in a department store).  She started with “Spooky Sounds,” which went something like this:

“Tightnen Keen” this and “Tightnen Keen” that, where the “this” and “that” we could not make out.  With every turn of the page, she’d say “Tightnen Keen” again, followed by nonsensical statements.  And then she’d flip the book around for us to look at the pictures.  “See, Cal Daniel,” she’d say if she didn’t think Cal was paying attention to him.  And then she’d proceed.  “Tightnen Keen” blah blah blah.  It was a real page turner.

Then she moved on to “Corduroy,” which, lucky for all of us, has a few pictures of escalators in it.  Ella’s a big fan of escalators; and as she read, she included in the story the plight of Cal Daniel over the weekend when he fell on the escalator.  “Cal Daniel fell down on ecsalator,” she said once or twice, recalling something that really did happen.  And around that were a bunch of nonsensical sentences with the word “ecsalator” occasionally thrown in.  She had a little twist at the end of this one, though, when she said, “and then I went poopy in my underwear.”  This caught Cal’s attention, and he belted out a hearty laugh.