We heard the patter of not-so-little feet last night at 10 pm. As they made their way down the stairs, we knew it was Chloe. She approached us with a bittersweet smile on her face and asked “Can I stay up to finish Harry Potter? Please? Please?” She had made it to the epilogue of the final tome – how could we say no?
Chloe was excited and sad at the same time. “I don’t want it to end.” She was unabashedly proud of her accomplishment – a total of 4,198 pages read in less than four months. Her favorite part of the series came near the end, when Harry and his friends battled Voldemort and the Death Eaters. Dumbledore and Ron were her favorite characters and the saddest part for her was when Dumbledore died. She was most surprised by the truth about Snape (who wasn’t nearly as evil as she once suspected).
Chloe is going to miss Harry Potter and is looking for the next series to dig her teeth into. Suggestions are welcome. She’s understandably afraid she’ll never find another series that she’ll love as much as Harry Potter. “J.K. Rowling is such a good author,” Chloe said wistfully. Perhaps Chloe will be the next J.K. Rowling…
I’ve been encouraging Chloe to try reading the Harry Potter books for the last couple of months – but she’s resisted because of her obsession with reading every single Nancy Drew book that’s ever been published.
However, she’s out of Nancy Drew books (at least for now). So after reading two other novels about knights in shining armor, she decided to delve into the first Harry Potter tome. So far, so good.
Tonight she came bounding downstairs, book in hand, when she heard me come home from Back-to-School night. “Mommy, mommy!” she exclaimed. “I’m at the part where they find out what houses they’re in!”
Chloe didn’t believe me when I promised her that reading the books would be a much different experience from watching the movies. In fact, Chloe often doesn’t believe me when I tell her things. But that’s another story for another time. For now, I’m just happy that she’s reading so much – it’s truly gratifying.
I can’t resist posting another video of Sophie showing off her moves, in this case her bouncing skills – sort of like Tigger. I promise that this will be the last one – for at least a week or two. But, really, she’s irresistible!
That’d be our dear Chloe. Who started volume six of the Nancy Drew series on Saturday and who is now almost done with volume seven, a mere two days later!
She has become a voracious reader, at least of Nancy Drew. I’m trying to convince her to start reading the “Harry Potter” books, but because she’s the obsessive-compulsive daughter of an obsessive-compulsive mother, she likely won’t even seriously consider starting another series until she’s read all of the million (ok – the original series had 56 books; but there have been several spin-offs since which, according to Wikipedia, have produced at least a couple hundred more) Nancy Drews. Crazy, no?
On another note, I made some calls about procuring entertainment for Sophie’s birthday party next month. I should be able to check that off my list by the end of the week. I like the idea of a friendly clown who can do face painting, tattoos and balloons – there’s a “Colors” and a “Lickerish” who might fit the bill. Sophie would love that.
In yesterday’s blog post, I wrote that Chloe was getting close to finishing this entire book in one day. She did it – in less than 24 hours.
As I mentioned, the afternoon was extremely quiet around the house as she turned the pages. Uncommonly, surprisingly quiet. Sophie and I even had a chance to bond – pretending to make food out of small legos in a bowl by utilizing tinkertoys as stirring utensils. I tried to build a Duplo house for Sophie – but I stink at that kind of stuff. So we built towers instead. Towers that Sophie would then knock over with glee.
Every once in a while, Chloe took a break from her reading to further enrich herself by practicing the piano on her small keyboard. She is quickly mastering the songs in her book (some of which I remember from when I was a kid), and she seems to be enjoying the challenge. She’s even showing concern about the keyboard’s battery life – which never before concerned her. Sophie has a tendency to leave the equipment running, and god forbid the battery should run out now that Chloe actually cares.
The girls are getting older, and smarter and funnier, and more adorable. How lucky we are.
Chloe finished her second Nancy Drew mystery today. It was her last day to log books for her school’s 100 book challenge
She was a little upset this morning, because she’s afraid that even after receiving credit for the Nancy Drew tome (to the tune of one point for two chapters), she won’t make it to 100.
After a stellar school year (she got 100% on her last spelling test and her year-end math test), she was beating herself up over the number of books she’d read over the last nine months. And not just any books – complicated chapter books.
I told her she should be proud of herself for all she had accomplished – and the tears quickly dried up. But I still have this lingering feeling that she puts too much pressure on herself; or perhaps, more likely, that we (and mostly I) unintentionally put too much pressure on her. It’s something I’m going to have to monitor closely. I wouldn’t want my girls growing up needing too much therapy once they reach their adult years…
A Mom's Ramblings About the Marvels & Mishaps of Parenting, the Joys of Family Travel & the Writing Life
Chloe is mulling over the idea of providing a monthly poetry column. The following poem counts as her second contribution; the first one is here. 
