1 Mother 2 Another

Apparently Cora is reading now.


And I missed it.


Monday night Cora shut herself in her room for a long time, and
when Brian finally went to check on her, Cora said, “Daddy,
I’m reading now! Do you want to hear it?”


Being a good dad, Brian said, “Of course I would!”
while thinking “reading” meant “I have the book
memorized and will now recite it out loud to you”.


And that’s how it sounded at the beginning, but it soon
became clear to Brian that Cora was really reading. She’d
skip a word and he’d say, “No, what’s
this?” And she’d stop, look at it, and figure it out
one letter at a time. Yep, reading.

Brian told me (did I mention I missed
this?) that she’d finish one page, do a little happy dance
wriggle with a huge smile, then go to the next page.


Maddie finally wandered in and Cora repeated her offer, which
Maddie wisely accepted. As Cora was reading through she’d
stumble or skip over a word and make herself stop and fix it.
“Focus, focus,” she’d whisper to herself, take a
big breath, and try it again.


I can’t believe I missed this.


So now she’ll casually carry a book into the room and offer
to read it for someone. You can see in her face how big she feels,
how open the door now is as the pages that were once just
tantalizingly out of reach are beginning to miraculously be
understandable.


It’s a big, wide, beautiful world out there, Li’l Bit.
I can’t wait to watch you dive in.