The Longest Shortest Time

We Can’t Stop: Sick Day Edition

I think I never feel as much like a *mom* as I do when Sasha is sick. Those days are harder, for sure, what with all the food throwing and screeching and I-want-this-no-I-don’t-want-it-I-WANT-IT-ing. But I also have a definite understanding of where the fury is coming from and because of that it’s easier for me to just let her scream when she needs to and be as nurturing as possible. Once she’s gotten it all out, she’s usually up for some hard core snuggling. And reading. And that is when I feel like, This is it. I’m a mom. I am what she needs right now. I am giving her the ultimate comfort. I am trying to make her feel better and it is working. Moments of clarity like this are rare.

If you couldn’t tell already, today was a sick day. (We seem to be sticking pretty faithfully to our fever every other week cycle.) Because of this, we spent most of the day reading in bed and I can tell you without a doubt the books we can’t stop reading.

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom by Bill Martin Jr. and John Archambault tops the charts this week. We have been reading it so much that Sasha has begun to recognize lowercase letters, which is a pleasant surprise. Her favorite letter is “patched-up F.” She spends the first half of the book asking, “Where is the Band-Aid?” Very Band-Aid obsessed these days, liking at all times to have one on her wrist to remove and replace until the stickiness dies (one source of screeching).

Harold and the Purple Crayon by Crockett Johnson has popped up on our WCSR list here and there but I’ve never read it as many times in one day as I did today. Sasha thinks it’s hi.lar.i.ous when Harold’s hand shakes and he falls into an ocean. And she shouts gleefully, “Oh-no! Oh-no!” when he’s falling in mid-air. I think it hasn’t sunk in for her yet that these are scary moments for Harold. It’ll be interesting to see if this changes with age. Oh, and one of my favorite phrases of all time to leave out and let her fill in the blanks is “a very hungry moose and a deserving porcupine to finish it up.”

Another one that’s been in our rotation for awhile but had a major comeback today is Randall de Seve’s Mathilda and the Orange Balloon. As a kid who was constantly called a sheep by her peers in middle school, I find this one particularly touching. I also happen to be a big fan of all illustrations by Jen Corace. For Sasha, I think the draw is simply because the book is about a balloon and she can never get enough of those. There were, in fact, many orange ones at her birthday party last week.

Fourth on our list is a holdover from the last WCSR update: the beloved classic, Corduroy.

Last but not least is Philip and Erin Stead’s gorgeous A Sick Day for Amos McGee. These illustrations just kill me. McGee was a favorite here for a little while but has sat on the shelf untouched for weeks. Tonight Sasha very purposefully dug it out from the pile on her night stand and handed it to me for her bedtime book. No idea if that’s because she put together Amos being sick and her being sick. In any case, she sat listening quietly, when suddenly she stunned me by announcing, “They waiting for the number five bus.” Number five? It’s so interesting to see what details of books stick with her and which ones fly out the window, even though they seemed so important at one time (a la Bear Snores Cat). Or maybe it’s just that she’s starting to be able to remember more. (How exciting and frightening!)

Oh, and while I’m at it, a new We Can’t Stop Listening To. Thanks to Kate’s suggestion I checked out a couple Elizabeth Mitchell CDs from the library. Sasha is not one for new music—it really has to be snuck in—but I tried playing it while we were painting the other day and she became super attached to Mitchell’s rendition of “Freight Train” on her You Are My Flower album. Today, to get a break from reading, I brought out the watercolors again and Sasha sat there saying what sounded like “white train, white train” until I finally realized what she was talking about. I put the song on repeat for the rest of the afternoon all the way through dinner. (I tried turning it off earlier and was met with screeching.)

What can’t YOU stop reading and listening to?