Have you ever read the story about Tikki tikki temob-no sa rembo-chari bari ruchi-pip peri pembo? 

I picked it up off the book shelf yesterday, remembering how fond Brayden was of the book.  We hadn’t 

read it in awhile.  When you have five hundred books laying around the house, some of them sometimes get overlooked.  So we sat down and read it–each time I read it to him, I think that he will surely lose interest.  It’s just a lot different than the other books we read.  The illustrations aren’t as flashy and it looks really, really old.  

But then I forget that his interpretation of the world is a whole lot different than mine.  And to him, books like Tikki Tikki Tembo and Blueberries for Sal (which he also loves) are meaningful because I’m actually taking the time to sit down and read them to him.  Heck, I could probably take out the dictionary and start reading to him and he would happily listen if that meant he could sit next to me or on my lap and have my full attention.    

So we read about the little Chinese boy who fell into the well and once he got out of the well, wasn’t recovered for many, many moons–all because of his giant, long name.  We read about the Old Man with the Ladder.  We read about Chang.  And we learned the tale of why people in China now have very short names.    

Brayden smiled.  And he laughed.  And he pointed and was very, very interested.  And I let his little soul soak in the joy of story time with mommy.  And all the while, I soaked it in too.