Late Night Confessions

A few days ago Ryker came to me with a very serious conversation.

R: Mommy, I've got to tell you something.

C: Ok. What?

R: I've been doing something in my bed at night.

C: Okaaaaay. What?

R: Well, late at night after you tell us to go to sleep I hide under my covers and....read....with my flashlight.

C: (exhaling for the first time since the conversation started) Well......you really do need to get your sleep, but as long as you get up in time in the morning for school you can stay up and read under your covers for a little while.

I am secretly happy that Ryker is so engrossed in his books that he can't put them down. He has always been a good reader, but he never enjoyed reading for long periods of time before.

On vacation this summer his great aunt gave him a series of Charlie Brown books (published comic strips) and he read those, literally, all the way from Kansas City to Colorado Springs. He wanted to read a lot of them out loud to us. It was a constant chorus of, "Hey, listen to this one!" We were both impressed with his voice inflections and animation as he read about poor old Charlie's troubles, but it got to the point where we were sick of them and had to ban The Peanuts out loud.

Then last night I put the boys in bed and told them they could both read for awhile with their flashlights. I came upstairs 15 minutes later and found them both huddled around their little nightlight on the wall squinting to read their books. They couldn't find their flashlights and they couldn't not read before bed so what else were they supposed to do?

I guess if one of my habits is going to rub off on them I'm really glad it is reading. There are a few others I really wouldn't want them to inherit.