Back seat driver and a new reading challenge

Henry has his colors down. He has even figured out white, a sort-of un-color, color. Pink seems to be his favorite, followed by orange and yellow. Understanding colors is great fun and has proven to be pretty useful with our most recent parenting challenge-the defiant 2 year old. I read a little about this age and in the end felt that the most useful advice I found for parents is to give your child lots of control by allowing them to make choices about things that are not serious so that when you have to tell them no or give them direction with the more serious stuff it is not such a stuggle. So, with this in mind Henry gets to pick his clothes, his shoes, which fruit to eat with breakfast, what books to read, what cup to drink out of... you get the idea. Henry knowing his colors has helped us with this endeavor. Do you want the blue cup or the green cup? Orange jacket or blue one? Sure he ends up wearing some crazy outfits (and rain boots on the driest days) but we don't mind. With his new knowledge he has also become a little bit of a back seat driver. "Green light Mama. GO!" "Red light Red light!!! STOP!" On Sunday we incorporated it into a game. We were cars driving around the house, honking and “Going way too fast Mama”..well that is until someone yells Red Light. The game was such a hit that we have played it every night since. Wade tried to include Yellow Light last night but Henry didn't quite get it. I'm sure we will try again tonight.

Henry also has started recognizing letters. Yesterday on the drive to my Mom's was passed several hospital signs (Blue square with a big H in the center) and Henry called out "Mama Look Henry's H". He also knows "Papa's P" and "Mama's M" and W. The challege now is trying to read stories to him because he is constantly searching for letters he recognizes. He pulls the book right up to his face and says "Where Henry H Mama?" or "Two W right der." Last night it took over an hour for us to read 6 books and he didn't get to bed until after 9:00. Tonight I think we will let him pick only 3 books and shoot for 8:30.