It’s official — Ben can read

Last night Ben and I sat down to read his nightly story, and Ben brought in his “What is a Wookiee” reader and proceeded to read it to me. As you might imagine, this startled me. When did he start reading?

So, he must have memorized this book, I decided. He just turned five, and although we’ve been writing new words in his “word book” for quite some time, I just didn’t think he had crossed that hump where he knows enough words to read something he’s never seen. So, today I brought home a very generic reader from the library to test him, and guess what? He read it. Sure, he stumbled over some of the words and had to sound some out. And he didn’t make it through the entire book — “Too many new words, Mama,” he said. But he read the book nonetheless.

It seems bizarre. Just the other day I was hoping he would read by first grade, because he is kind of wearing us out. I mean, we have to limit the number and length of books we read at night, because Ben would happily let us read for 45 minutes or more. And by the time he’s in bed, I am too exhausted to spend the better part of an hour working my way through his library.

So my little boy is growing up. Maya has six teeth. I’m starting to wrinkle. How did this happen? Next thing you know I’ll be slapping young men on the ass and grinning at them with my tooth.

I guess I could look on the bright side — someday Ben will have absolutely no desire to watch the Wonder Pets ever again. A few wrinkles and some sagging body parts might just be worth it.