There are probably a few 20-something bloggers who read me who participated in "Book It!" in school. I remember my nephew, now 22, doing Book It, and his excitement over filling up his reading log and getting a free Pizza Hut pizza certificate. Can it really be that now, almost 20 years later, I'm doing Book It with Jenna?
I AM SO OLD.
Tonight we finished her first reading log, and tomorrow she'll take it proudly to school and trade it in for a cheese pizza, or a facsimile thereof.
The real story is of course one of those Jenna moments, as she read to me the last two books to fill up the lines: Clifford's Hiccups and My World (Companion to Good Night Moon and a freaky little companion book it is). I was, shall we say, encouraging her to finish up, the bewitching hour of bedtime already having slipped by, and she began explaining to me her process for shutting down.
Jenna: Mama, there's a tower in my body, a very tall tower, and lots of people. The people have to climb the tower all the way from down here (her feet) to up here (the top of her head) at night. When they get to the top, they turn out the light in my brain, and I go to sleep. I can't go to sleep until they turn out the light in my brain. And there are a LOT of people in me, in my body and in my brain.
Me: Okay, well, I think they need to move along. All of them.
Jenna: They are. They're right here (pointing to her butt). They still have a loooong way to go though (using her pointer finger to trace a path from her butt up to the top of her head).
Me: Jenna, baby, it's late, we need to finish up this book and get to sleep. Tell your night time people to move along.
Jenna: I can't rush them. They'll fall. You see, they're very very old.
