Why we keep those toys

Today I took the kids with me to Target to select valentine's for their classmates. I was already on the on-ramp to the highway when I realized my wallet was in the bag I use for choir. The extra 30 minutes it added to our trip was frustrating, as was the fact that the selection of child-sized valentines were limited to those with no characters we knew, and came with pop-rocks.

So I took the boys to the book store afterward. I had some gift cards, and I wanted to grab a copy of Dante's Inferno because I've never read it but keep running across books that refer back to it. I like to read. I am trying to pass this love of reading, the escapism of reading, along to my boys. Nathan seems to really enjoy it, but Nicholas gives up rather easily. "You tell me what it says," he'll say. And I'll have to tell him the word is DOG. We're reading Go Dog Go, and it looks the same as it did on the previous 5 pages when I've pointed it out to him and sounded it out and spelled it out. And I worry he isn't learning or isn't able to learn, and I panic.

I let each boy pick out a book to buy. Nicholas picked a book that had little letter magnets. "Learn To Spell!" the book says. These books are generally a lot of trouble, and Nick usually ignores the book and plays with the toys until they are scattered around the house and I end up picking them up for the next three years. But I said yes.

I was making lunch and Nick was sorting through the letter magnets. "I want to spell a word, Mom," he said, "but I can't find the C. I can find the A and the T."

I almost cried. Because he gets it.