How I Know My Son Is Really Reading, Even If Our Doctor Thinks I'm Nuts

Yeah, so, at Isaac's two year check-up about a month ago, the doctor asked me, "So, what sorts of things is he doing, developmentally?"

"Well, he talks quite a bit, often in full sentences, although he still needs to work on his enuncuation, and he walks and runs just fine, although he's a bit more timid than other kids his age, and, um, he builds really tall block towers, and, let me see, he scribbles pretty well with his crayons, and oh-- Did I tell you this at our last visit? He's reading."

To which the doctor, trying very hard not to roll his eyes, responded, "Oh, you mean he remembers some of the words in some of his favorite books and pretends to read along with you?"

"No, no, I mean, he's reading, as in--"

"You mean he recognizes logos on cereal boxes? Or that he knows the titles of some of his books? That's not the same as . . ."

"No, he reads words."

"You mean, he can actually read the same word in different places? In different type styles?" The doctor looked at me with extreme skepticism.

"He read the word 'milk' at the supermarket a few months back, on a generic box of powdered milk that didn't have any pictures of milk on it. His father and I both saw him. We hardly believed it ourselves, but we've seen him read more words since then."

The doctor shook his head. I imagine he was thinking that only way to deal with this delusional woman was to humor her.

"Oh, well, that's nice," he said, and quickly changed the subject.

Well, Mister Doctor Man can go and eat his textbooks for all I care. Do you know what I caught my son saying this week while watching television?"

1.) During a Home Depot commercial, he said, "Mommy, let's go to the Home Depot again!"

He pronounced the "T."

To my knowledge no one has ever mispronounced the word "depot" in his presence. This means HE READ THE WORD. Not only did he read it, he SOUNDED IT OUT.

Don't believe me?

2.) Tonight when we turned on Comedy Central to watch the repeat of last night's Colbert Report, Isaac said, "Colbert is coming on!"

And he said Col-BerT. He pronounced the "T."

Come on, now. Stephen Colbert doesn't even pronounce the "T" in Report.

Now do you believe me?