Caiden is READING!!!

Over the last few months I've been watching reading sneak up on Caiden without him even knowing it. He follows along with my finger when we read bedtime stories and he's been starting to pick out individual words off the page. He reads street signs out loud without being aware of it. He corrects me when I read the wrong word in a story, and points to the right spot on the page to show me what word I should have said. 

But he's been CONVINCED he can't read. 

Last week we found his very first wiggly tooth and let me tell you, it turned his life around! He's been having a bit of a rough couple of months with a lot of friends moving on to Kindergarten and his sister moving on to a "real" grade. For a while there he was *really* pushing his limits every way he could think of. He made it pretty clear that if the world thinks he's too "baby" to go to Kindergarten, that's how he's going to act. 

But then we found the tooth. Babies don't have wiggly teeth, you know. Proof positive that he's grown up through and through. Suddenly he's helping to make dinner again, he's pouring his own milk, he's buckling his own seat belt, waking up to use the bathroom, all *sorts* of grown up behavior. He has a wiggly tooth, you see. :)

Today in his parent box at school was an adorable bag he decorated himself with a note that mini-books will be starting to come home. Attached to the bag in a tiny gauze pocket was a "magic moon rock" which is see-through. He holds the rock over the words as he goes through the story. Watch This Amazingness:

And yes, even though this is a poem he already knows, he's reading the actual words not just reciting from memory. I checked. He read the book to me. He read the book to his sister. He read the book to his Dad over skype. He read the book to me again. And then he *finally*, *finally* looked at me and said, 

"MOM! HOLY CRUD! I THINK I CAN READ!!!!"

Yeah, baby. You can READ! <3