Words on the Street

You know, we've been casually mentioning to friends and family for the past year that Roo knows how to read. I think, at first, most people nodded and smiled. And thought that we were such proud parents but probably a bit delusional. Heck. We thought that, too, for a while.
But, looking back over a years worth of photographs, the evidence is clear. And awesome.

Sept. 10, 2008
The 'd' in the picture is actually a P from another set. Roo liked its reversible properties. It could be a d, P, b or a 9.

Sept. 19, 2008


Oct. 22, 2008
This is the first time I realized she could hear words and figure out how to spell them. A friend and I were talking about the cartoon character Betty Boop. Roo came home that afternoon and spelled this. Guess she liked the way the word sounded. And yes, the extra 'O' is actually a zero.

What really blows my doors off is what Roo does with a 26 letter alphabet set. Lots of the words she wants to spell require multiple copies of certain letters. She knows it, makes do with the limited choices and arranges the letters in a way that allows you to still understand the word or phrase she wanted to spell.
Feb. 2, 2009
Can you figure it out? BaLloONS. Also, we lost the 'o' out of this set and she subbed in a zero.

Feb. 5, 2009
Feb. 8, 2009
Because we were talking about the next day being Aunt Joy's birthday.

Feb. 15, 2009
With the exception of the zero, all the numbers were put away. What's a girl to do? Spell out the 2. I didn't know she understood the difference between to and two until this.

March 19, 2009
This marks the start of a love affair with Finding Nemo.

Before you look at the next photo, understand that we lost the 'U' from this alphabet set. Roo has been experimenting with vowel substitutions after learning that 'Y' is a "sometimes vowel".

Also, she's obsessed with three words from the Leap Frog: Code Word Caper video:
bake (to teach the silent E),
shut (to teach blends) and
wait (to teach the rule for pairing two vowels).
The video partners the three words at the end to unlock a riddle to solve a problem. Roo loves this concept and also the rules that the words teach. So, she spells them out a lot.

Again, this alphabet set only has 25 letters. Missing U.

May 4, 2009

*Ehem*

May 5, 2009
Lately she's been working on phrases. Can you decipher this one?
Singing in THE RAIN.

May 6, 2009
TIME FoR ScHOoL
(a favorite line from Finding Nemo)

the magic of PBS

Our PBS affiliate uses the call letters K L R U. There's also a second channel that beams in from a nearby town.
It identifies itself as K L R U 2.

I didn't have the number magnets out for playtime today. Someone made do.

What did you say?!

This morning, Roo kept asking about her sh*t.
Her shirt. But, that's not what it sounded like.

And the other day, she started spelling out loud.
J and I both listened attentively.
"F. U."
pause pause pause
"N."
I thought J was going to lose his, er, shirt waiting for the final letter to drop.

At least the girls don't replace t's with f's like my friend's child. Every time that kid asks to ride in her daddy's truck, you have to pick the grown ups off the floor.

Four Letter Words

Tonight, before Goodnight Moon was recited, Roo sidled up to the crib rail and spelled duck, unsolicited. And her Daddy had a mild coronary attack.
He's been gone some of the week on business and her repertoire has expanded.

Then, she spelled milk and stop.

Add that to the growing list of words I've heard her spell out loud.
car
cat
cow
dog
hat
hot
read
boat
pink
help
happy
puppy
Elmo
Grover
moon
good
night
book
her name
her twin's name

And apparently she recognizes many more words, just hasn't committed the spelling to memory. I was trying to explain to Aunt Kaki that Roo recognizes words like Sesame Street and rocket in print and tells me what they say.

And Kak looked at me like I had grown a 2nd, and maybe, a 3rd nose.

And said, "That's. Reading."

Right.

My 28 month old is reading.