Ryley Stories

A couple of book-related Ryley Stories from this week:

We had ordered some books for Ryley through her Scholastic book club at school. Ryan and I actually love looking through the Scholastic catalogs and choosing books for her (they're cheap!!!); thus, we rarely ask for her opinion, and the books she receives are often a surprise to her. So today she received her books -- a four-pack of "Junie B. Jones, First Grader" chapter books and a Max Lucado princess book. I had thought that maybe over the summer we could work on encouraging/challenging her to read a little bit longer of stories, AND these books are supposedly on a first grade reading level. When Ryan picked her up from school, her teacher relayed Ryley's reaction to her new books:

"Oh, no! My mommy and daddy ordered chapter books! I'm just a little girl -- I can't read chapter books! Oh, I know....They must have ordered them for themselves!"

Ryley's teacher thought it was so funny....She said she had an image in her head of Ryan and me sitting up in bed reading "Junie B. Jones" books to ourselves. ;-)


Also, on Saturday, I stopped by the library and picked up "The Five Love Languages of Children," which came highly recommended to me by a lady at church. Ryley wanted to know what the book was about, so I told her it was a book that helps mommies understand their kids a little better so they can ultimately become better mommies. In retrospect, I probably should have worded that differently.

A couple of hours later, I was sitting on the couch reading a regular old novel, and Ryley sat next to me watching cartoons. She leaned over my lap to look at the book I was reading.

"Mommy? Why aren't you reading that book that will make you a better mommy?"

"Do you think I need to be a better mommy?"

"Well...." She looked at me hesitantly and shyly. "Sometimes, when I do something bad, you can be kind of mean."

"Oh. So I'm a mean mommy?"

"Only when I do bad things. Not all the time."

And she snuggled back down against me to cuddle some more on a lazy Saturday afternoon. Happy Mother's Day to me. :-)