My Baby Can Read!

My mother has always claimed that I was reading at 2 1/2 years old. I always thought she was exaggerating, but sort of was proud of that regardless. I remember in elementary school, I used to sneak out of my bed at night to read by nightlight. I LOVED reading as a kid. I still enjoy it, but really don't find the time for it anymore. Of course I find time to watch Gossip Girl and 90210 though.

Carter has known his letters and the sounds they make for a while now, but only recently did we start working on putting them together into words. He watches Super Why! a lot, and has learned quite a bit of phonics from that show, so I thought maybe it was time to see what he really could do. Boy was I surprised!

He has flashcards with pictures of items/animals/whatever on them, so we started with that. I'd hide the picture (as best I could) with my hand, and have him sound out the word. Sometimes he'd get it but sometimes he would say something like, "R-A-B-B-I-T"..."Bunny Rabbit" because he knew what the picture under my hand was. So I took out his Magnadoodle and wrote the word "cat" on it. That little munchkin took his pointer finger to each letter, said the sound they make a few times in a row, and then shouted "Cat!" I was shocked. So I tried another word. He did it again with "dog." My heart swelled with pride.

Last night I brought home a new book to read (for 56 cents at the consignment store!). We sat down and I had him read all the three-letter words. He got them all. Sit, pig, cat, dog. All of 'em. He was a pro.

I talked to his teacher today about it and she said she's going to do more work with him on reading and letter and sound recognition. A new group of kids that just turned two just joined his class, so now he's one of the few almost-three-year-olds, so I was a little concerned that he wouldn't be challenged as much, but I trust Ms. Dorothea and I know she's going to help him succeed.

A friend of mine told me over the weekend that parents who read early tend to have children who read early. I don't know if it's true or not, but it sure is in our house. I couldn't be more proud of him!

Cool Tricks!

First, watch this:



Then, watch this:

Gross Habits

Carter started biting his fingernails pretty much immediately after he started school in January.  I hate how short they are but if there’s even a tiny bit of white, he needs to gnaw it off.  And I can’t cut it off because it’s such a tiny sliver.  We’ve tried putting the nasty nail polish but it didn’t do anything.  He didn’t even notice.  We remind him not to bite when we see him doing it, but now it seems he just does it when he goes to bed.  I rarely catch him doing it anymore.

Another gross habit he has is licking pillows.  He lays on a pillow to watch tv, sucking his thumb, and every few minutes, turns his head and licks the pillow.  Then he sticks his thumb back in his mouth and rubs the wet spot with his other fingers.  I have no idea why he does it.  He doesn’t do it as much anymore as he did a few months ago, but I still catch him every once in a while.  A few times, I told him to stop licking and he would spit a tiny bit and rub that part instead.  I *think* we’ve nipped that one in the bud.

He picks his toenails.  Especially his big toes.  He basically peels the toenail in layers.  I keep them short but he picks and picks until he eventually gets some sort of satisfaction from it. 

I’ve recently caught him picking his eye boogers, and then putting his finger in his mouth.  Gross.  Regular boogers he presents to me so I can wipe them with a tissue, but eye boogers go in his mouth for some reason.

I don’t know what to do to stop this bad habits.  Is mine the only gross kid out there?  Please tell me I’m not alone.  What does your kid do that grosses you out?

Update 8/8/2011: 

He no longer licks pillows and points out his dry pillow at least once or twice a week. 

Also he's cut back on the nail-biting too, as long as I keep them short.  As soon as they grow just a little bit he bites them down.  But we make a big fuss over him if he grows his "whites" and he gets really proud of himself if he doesn't bite them.

He doesn't pick his toenails much anymore either.  Occassionally I have to remind him to leave his toes alone, but it's pretty rare these days.

The eye boogers are sort of a non-issue anymore, also.  And when he gets a regular booger, he has learned to let us know and we'll get him a tissue.  I'm still working on the whole don't-pick-your-nose thing.  He's three...what can I say?