Allow me a moment to brag

Oliver can read!!!

Yes, that's right, I said my 3 year old can read!

Ok, so he's not reading whole books or anything (except How the Grinch Stole Christmas, but that is from his freakish memory, not reading), but he can read 3 whole words! Four if you count his name, which he can now also write. Hey, I said I was going to brag!

Word #1: Zoo. That was the first word I noticed him reading. I thought it was like "reading" logos, like Target or Shoprite, that he was just recognizing it kind of like a logo, instead of actually reading it. But then we saw it in one of his books, and he pointed at it and said, "That says zoo." And has said that every time we see it since. This was several months ago. I figured it was a fluke, so I didn't make a big deal out of it.

Word #2: No. (Go figure.) A few weeks ago, Marty and Oliver returned from a visit to the pool, and Marty said he could read the word "no" on the rules sign, and on the "no diving" sign on the pool. Then that same week, he pointed out a "no" on the No Parking sign at the grocery store. Still, I was like, eh, it's barely a word, 2 little letters, does that really count?

Word #3: Red. On our recent trip to NYC (which I'll blog about soon, I promise), we ate dinner at a Mexican restaurant named Red. Neither Marty nor I had mentioned the name, we just happened upon it and said, "This looks good, let's eat here." After our mediocre dinner, Marty was waiting for the disappearing waitress to bring him the check, so I took an impatient Oliver to walk around the pedestrian area outside the restaurant. We wandered away, then wandered back, wondering what was taking Marty so long, and when we got to the restaurant, Oliver pointed at the sign and said, "That says Red." I asked, "How do you know?" thinking he just recognized it from something else, but wasn't really reading it. He pointed at each letter and said, "That's a R, that's a E, that's a D. That spells Red." He was really reading!!! And so I did what every proud mother would do--I took a picture!

Ironically, red is my least favorite color. But I guess it would be expecting a lot for him to be able to read purple! Or for there to be a restaurant with that name!