Your Baby Can Read

I'll spare you my lecture (read: tirade) about the product of the same name, how calling words you've been told to memorize in exchange for a prize like Pavlov's dog is not reading, and the gullibility of the parents who think it is.

Instead, I'll share some cute anecdotes about two of my favorite topics: Madeline and books.

She actually displays some of the very same behaviors as the kids in the commercial for the aforementioned product. For instance, when she sees this card...



...she says, "Baby!!"  (Gasp! Thirteen months and she's READING!!)

She has a cute book in which a toddler's mommy plays hide-and-seek with him. She "reads" that one, too. It goes like this...



Madeline points to the page and says, "A-ga-da-ma-ma-dis?"



Then, she lifts this flap and says, "NO!" See? What do those kids on the commercial have that she doesn't?

Then, there's Bubbles Bubbles, a poignant story of Sesame Street characters and their bath time rites. It's quite moving. Madeline loves it. She reads it over and over again.



"Bah-bah Bah-bah nis-be-no! Bah-bah Bah-bah na-na-no!"



Yes, I think she's the most adorable child who ever lived. I'm her mommy. I'm supposed to think that.

No, I don't think she can read. (For the record, I don't think the kids on the commercial can, either.) But, it's so much fun to watch her try!