One of our many evening rituals is the reading of books. Each boy gets to choose one (or maybe two, but no more than five, tops!) book and we all sit on Z's bed for family book reading. Lately Z has been doing much of the reading, which has been great to see. O, always wanting to be like his brother, insists that he wants to "read" a book too, leading to varying humorous interpretations as he attempts to either recite a classic by rote (with hilarious missed, simplified, or altered recitations) or goes completely off script and tries to tell a new story based on the illustrations alone.
Lately, each of them also wants to have a book in bed with them; Z will actually try to read it with the lights off by holding up his Twilight Turtle; we may need to get him some kind of book lamp, though I fear he'd just turn it on and off all night as a toy. And again, O wants to be like his brother, often requesting the same book right after Z has asked for it. Last night, the battle was on for a Richard Scarry one. O was tearful when Meh explained to him that Z had requested it first, and she offered him a number of other books that of course weren't that one, and were rejected. In the end, mommy snuggles beat out the lack of the preferred book, while Z was reading it down on the bottom bunk. But when Meh got up to get out of O's bed when he fell asleep, something fell off his bed and to the ground: somehow, Z had covertly snuck the requested book up to O's bed after finishing reading it, so O could have it when he woke up. We were both amazed and touched -- what a thoughtful older brother!
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