Glitter narrates

Tonight's read aloud was the last chapter of "Elmer and the Dragon." Oddly enough, I found myself shushing Sparkle for interrupting the story, instead of Glitter. Normally Glitter's active hands and voice find ways to block the story. She'd want to linger over minuscule details in the pictures, or thrill to repeatedly find the letter "a" in the text. I know that I ought to delight at her enjoyment of the book, but I'm not that good a mom and I just want to be able to relax and enjoy the book, so I tell her to "be quiet and listen."

After I finished the book, Glitter announced, "I listened!" I figured that she's got "being quiet" confused with "listening," as I didn't hold much hope for her actually paying attention to the story. While Sparkle would give animated recaps of previous chapters during bath time, Glitter's discussion of the books have been more aggravating. Her observations are more about what's going on in her silly head than what happened in the book. For example, "What animal did they meet?" would be answered with "a horse" when there were no horses anywhere in the book. "Where did they go?" would be answered "under my blanket." So, I was quite satisfied with Glitter simply being quiet and praised her for "listening."

Then just as Sparkle and I started reminiscing about the chapter, Glitter offered up her opinion on what happened in the story. "I know what happened! Elmer and the Dragon went home!" Wow. No horses or chickens. No blankets or corners of the room. That's exactly what happened. She must actually be paying attention.