Two Mr. Gillys

Isaac still loves books, although his desire to be read to has lessened somewhat -- and since this desire used to be overwhelmingly constant, I consider the lessening a good thing. Isn't it ironic that I, a children's librarian, would have gotten tired of reading to my child? In late February I even started writing a blog post I tentatively titled "Reading Sucks," because I was tired of reading to him for what felt like hours every day, but I decided it would be ungrateful of me to actually post it. (Not to mention bad karma.)

At any rate, my enthusiasm for reading has returned, partly because these days Isaac is content to listen to books a few times a day, instead of punctuating every activity with the refrain "Book please!" Well, he does ask to be read to more frequently when I've brought home a new book from the library that he's really into, and he picks up a book as soon as he climbs out of bed in the morning -- usually when I go into his room to get him, he's sitting in the big armchair looking at a book. (About 80% of the time it's the Zelinsky pop-up version of The Wheels on the Bus. Luckily he can be trusted to handle books on his own, even pop-ups. Even library books!)

Isaac started quoting from books a long time ago, and one that has made a lasting impression is Zimmerman and Clemesha's Trashy Town. We don't own our own copy, and a few weeks after I returned the one we had borrowed to the library, Isaac decided he wanted it back. He started asking me every day for the "garbage truck book," but I told him he had to wait until I went to work at the library and could check it out again. When I came home from work that Friday evening, he met me at the front door yelling, "Garbage truck book! Trashy Town!" Thankfully I had a copy to give him! Anyway, he recites a number of phrases from the book, including "Up, up, up goes the truck" and "Dump it in." Also, he calls every garbage collector "Mr. Gilly" after the "trash man" in the book.

But this week he deviated from the script somewhat. "Two Mr. Gilly," he said to me as he played with his Fisher-Price toy garbage truck.

I said, "Are there two Mr. Gillys?"

"Yeah. One drive big blue garbage truck," he said, meaning our real-life garbage truck. "Other one Isaac!"

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Maybe he'll grow up to be a book-loving sanitation worker? Although he also says, "Isaac drive taxi. Someday."