Reading Books with Simon

Simon is becoming a lot more interesting these days. When he's not completely bonkers, you can actually have a conversation with him sometimes. Usually these conversations are around the stories we read together, although one time he did tell me that he had grape yogurt for snack at school that day.

One book, called My World (by the same author as Goodnight Moon) is just a crazy, trippy book. Since the story is so boring, I started asking Simon questions about one of the pages.

Sera: What do you think that cat is going to do in the city?
Simon: Look for toys.
Sera:  What toy do you think the cat will find?
Simon: An airplane.
Sera: Really?  What kind of airplane?
Simon: A chocolate airplane.
Sera: What would you do with a chocolate airplane?
Simon: I would eat it!
Sera: What part would you eat first?
Simon: The propeller. I will bit the propeller!
Sera: That would be yummy. [I start to turn the page.]
Simon: I want it!
Sera: What?
Simon: I want the chocolate airplane. Let's go get it. Is it in the kitchen?

Oh, if you could see his big eyes looking at me, and you had the power, you would have conjured a chocolate airplane for this boy, who believed his own imagination.

***

For another book, we were working on counting, and I asked Simon to count how many kids were blowing bubbles in the park. Simon studied the picture, and said, "One, two...Two kids blowing bubbles." I was about to correct him and say "No, there are seven children blowing bubbles in the park," but when I looked at the picture I realized he was right. I asked him what they other kids were doing, and he said, "They're playing!"

In another picture from the same book, Simon observed, "They're making a mess on the floor."

***

On Saturday morning, we took a rare family trip to the grocery store to buy food for Alice's birthday party. Knowing this, Alice was already making plans: "Simon, we're going to get to ride in the rocket ship!" At Harris Teeter, they have rocket ship shopping carts for the kids to ride in.

Simon's eyes got big, and he said, "Yes! I want to go to space!"

So, I had to explain that we weren't really going to space, that Alice was talking about shopping carts.

Later, we were reading a book, and near the end there is a photograph of a rocket ship

I said, "Simon, yesterday you rode in a rocket ship!"

Simon corrected me, "It was a rocket ship shopping cart."

The next page had a picture of an astronaut on the moon, so I tried again.

"Simon, when you rode in the rocket ship shopping cart yesterday, what did you find on the moon?"

He replied, "I got a cookie."  It's true - they have free cookie samples at Harris Teeter.