There's Hope Yet

As it turns out, my fear that Allison would spurn books forever may have been slightly premature.

Allison is very active, as I think I've mentioned once or twice. Whenever I'd try reading to her, she'd wriggle out of my lap, grab the book from my hands, and either throw it or bang it on a nearby flat surface.

Just in the past week, though, she's taken an interest in having me read to her. She'll bring over a book and put it at my feet, sit down, and wait, more or less impatiently, for me to read it to her. Right now, we're concentrating on the Sandra Boynton canon. She isn't interested in any other books---she'll toss those aside derisively. If it isn't Pajama Time or But Not the Hippopotamus, don't bother.

In other ways, she's showing surprisingly refined literary taste. Sean's been enamored by Caillou: The Birthday Party, a dull, charmless book that's even more dull and charmless than the TV show. So we read it over and over again, or we did until Allison shredded it. Now there are brightly colored pieces of glossy paper scattered about the upstairs; somehow I find that kind of satisfying. Maybe I should let Allison loose on some other uninspired children's books....

Sean's taking the destruction of his book pretty well, perhaps because we've already told him we'd buy him another copy.