We did some finger painting today while Nicholas napped (he's still napping and we're snacking on club crackers, cream cheese, and tuna antipasto). I'm still feeling under the weather and my voice isn't strong enough for prolonged reading, so we're listening to Harry Potter and Sorcerer's Stone on CD. Meanwhile, Joanthan (who freakishly and inexplicably started reading before his third birthday) is reading a Magic Schoolbus book to himself on the couch and Benjamen's playing with the cat. Benjamen had "read" for a short while beside Brother, but decided the cat was more interesting.

Benjamen is all about numbers and colors and shapes lately. He's always been interested in counting from about the time he could talk, but now he's wanting me to identify number shapes for him and he checked out a number book from the library with number and counting games. He talks about colors constantly and makes up songs about them. He asks to paint the house all different colors and wants to know which colors we'd like to paint, sings about painting the different rooms different colors, very cute. Dan and I are always trying to stifle our giggles listening to him from the back seat of the car. The same with shapes. He's gotten really good at identifying most shapes and when he gets confused, he always stops himself and puzzles it out or asks us what the shape "really is". He doesn't give a hoot for letter shapes at all, and the only one I think he really knows is "O".

They're demanding that I read the about the Winter Faires, so off I go with my scratchy voice.