A couple weeks ago, Jacob asked if you can go into the mirror to get into the room on the other side. I told him you can't really, but that it happens in books sometimes. I mentioned Alice Through The Looking-Glass. I mentioned there are also walking, talking Chess pieces in the book, and this clinched the deal for Jake. He asked me to read it to him. So that night, I pulled out the volume and began to read it to him while we got ready for bed, thinking he'd last a page, maybe two.

That was two weeks ago. We're now almost finished with the book.

To my amazement, Jake has sat patiently and attentively through the reading of almost the entire novel. He isn't really following the plot at all, but he does seem to have a basic grasp of what's going on during each individual scene. He even laughed at the point when the White King says to the Unicorn "You shouldn't have run him through with your horn" and the Unicorn replied "It didn't really hurt him!" When Jake giggled at this, I quizzed him to find out what he thought "run him through" means and he said "Crash into him." Close enough! I'd say Jake basically got the joke.

Meanwhile, as I read the book to Jake, Ella runs around the room playing with toys and jumping on things--her usual pastimes--but periodically runs over to us, leans in to look at the book, and asks "What's Ellas doing now?" or "Why is Ellas mad?" This is because she's decided Alice is really Ellas--who is in turn really Ella. Sometimes she'll even ask "What's me doing now?" or "Who is me talking to?"

During the day, she occasionally decides she will only answer to the name "Ellas in Wonderland".

Jake says he wants to read Alice in Wonderland after this. Don't be surprised if you see pictures of the kids as Alice and the Mad Hatter this Halloween!

-Kris