Thank you, Dino Bob

Any day is a superbly super day for learning.    Image from Google +

Kai holds up a birthday book on grace from Lola Lorna Tirol    Photo by Booboo Babeth

Call it a granny's cop-out when she has run out of activities to keep a toddler occupied to help develop her gross and fine motor skills. But there's nothing like the invitation "Let's read a book!" to entice Kai/Butones to slow down a bit, then get cozy with her Booboo as she piles up the pillows for both of them.

Two weeks ago, this Booboo discovered Kai could already spell out the letters of book titles. She usually selects her book/s of the moment, and it was Dinosaur Bob and His Adventures with the Family Lazardo by William Joyce that special day. I've read this aloud to her more than 10 times.

Suddenly, she pointed to one letter at a time and sounded out clearly the letters "B", "O" and "B". Mightily, I tried to be cool about it and move on to the story of the Lazardos who traveled all over the world in the company of a brontosaurus. 

Later, Kai zeroed in on the names of cable television channels like "F", "O", "X" (reminded me of a scene in the movie You've Got Mail where the kid playing Tom Hanks' step-sibling spells out "fox" for Meg Ryan's benefit) and "T", "L", "C", my favorite lifestyle channel (it's got a lot of food and travel shows). 

Later, it was the title of a bedtime book, Happy Birthday, Moon. The thing with the letter "Y" is Kai confuses it with "Z" so she calls it "zebra."

Last week when she was hospitalized for a gastro-intestinal bug, she read out from her sickbed the words on my sweatshirt, an entire phrase: "Grand Canyon National Park"! I had to text family members in Baguio and Pasig to share the priceless bit of news

As for writing, she still hasn't graduated from lines and semi-circles.

But I'm mighty proud I have somehow, day by day by day, set Kai on the course of reading and writing readiness. I feel grateful to Mesozoic, heroic Bob, the biggest you've ever seen, for making this minor miracle possible.