Veronica is Reading (Well, Kind Of)

I don't necessarily expect anyone outside our immediate family to believe this, but, our baby girl, just shy of 23 months old (her birthday is October 29th), is reading a few words. Apparently Isaac did the same thing but Grace gave up on trying to tell people because no one would believe her. I don't think I read _that_ early, although I read early.

For example, at the beginning of a DVD, the logo for "Sony Pictures Classics" came on. I wasn't even facing the TV, but she was, and started pointing and saying "Classic." I was quite startled when I figured out what she was referring to! She has also picked words out of our junk mail and read them out loud, pointing and saying them. She also has become interested in the page numbers of books I'm reading.

This seems kind of strange, since she can't reliably count to ten along with us or recite the full ABCs yet. It would seem like one would have to be able to identify and name the letters and make their sounds before learning to read, but apparently that is more how you might teach an older child or adult to read. It's possible to just start pattern-matching without really knowing the rules yet.

In recent days (days, not weeks!) she's become suddenly much more verbal. Her spoken vocabulary has gone up quite dramatically, and she's picked up new ASL signs as well. It's quite startling. Last night I sang "Sing, sing a song" and she repeated the last word of each phrase:

Me: "Sing"
Vera: "Sing"
Me: "Sing a song"
Vera: "Song"
Me: "Sing out loud"
Vera: "Loud"

etc. Very cute! Now if we could just get her to go to bed without a big fuss...