Reading is so important

This weekend Z-Man got a care package from my grandma!  Can I get a GOOO Grandma!!  It had paints and crayons and coloring books and a sweet letter telling Z to share his supplies with his friends.  So awesome!

In addition to the art supplies were a ton of books!  No one's complaining.  Mostly Halloween books which Z is big time into.  He has even tried on his Simba costume from last year to see if he can be him again this year.  (Too small).

So last night Z is getting ready for bed and I tell him to pick a book to read.  He proudly chooses a Winnie the Pooh book as pictured below.

First, I gotta tell you this thing is over 40 pages!  No Cat in the Hat style 40 pages where there's a line or two on each page.  No Doctor!  This guy has a long paragraph on each and every page.  Grandma is really testing my reading skills.

Winnie the Pooh on Amazon

So we're reading this book and after two pages I'm saying things like, "Maybe tonight we only read this one book?"  and "I'm thinking maybe we read about half this book so we can read another book?"

Z has some mad negotiation skills so he's already countering with, "How about we read a couple more pages and then we're good and Daddy reads another book?"  All while patting my hand loveingly.  Sometimes he is just too much!

C is in our room next door folding laundry.  (Gotta love a man that will fold laundry!  Love you C)  I'm reading about Pooh and this pine cone that fell on his head and he going to do something else and suddenly the pine cone falls in the water.  Oh Pooh is on a bridge over the water btw.

Pooh notices the pine cone was on one side of the bridge and then magically came out the other side!  So he decides to make a game of throwing pine cones over the bridge to see them float in the water and he's going to call it "Pooh Sticks".  I cannot make this stuff up!

Your first question is perhaps "Why Pooh Sticks"?  Oh the book answers that...  Pooh reasons it is easier to carry a handful of sticks than and armload of pine cones to the bridge so immediately alters his game (as well as the name of said game).

I am reading this to my son.  I slow down to look at what I just read.  "Pooh Sticks"  I pause.  C hollers from the other room, "What's the game called?"  That's when I just lost it and start giggling like a 13 year old boy making fart sounds with his buddy.

This is probably 100% an inside joke but C and I say "Oh Pooh Sticks" all the time.  Well, less now that Z is around and we don't want him to say it around his teachers and then we have to endure that conversation.

So I cannot get through the rest of the page.  I mean tears were streaming down my face!  It doesn't help that Pooh's friends join in and each get their own stick to throw into the water to play the game.

Oh and I can hear C in the next room crying laughing as well.  Neither one of us can stop laughing.  Then I look at Z and he's just patiently looking at the pictures in the book.

Remember when your teacher would tell you to stop laughing and that just made it even harder to stop?  That was me.  Just trying like crazy to not find Pooh Sticks so funny.  Especially since ultimately it really isn't that funny.

Now I'm trying to choke out innocent lines in the book like "I expect my stick's stuck." and just laughing and laughing.  The joke, if you can call it that, is completely lost on poor little Z man who finally says, "Why are you laughing so hard Mommy?"

Eventually, I regain my composure and get through my laughing/crying fit and am able to finish the page. PHEW!  Then Eeyore enters the story and things turn dark pretty quickly as you can imagine.  We got halfway through it and will finish it tonight.  Thrilling conclusion!

So there you have it.  Thanks Grandma!  Not only did you give Z a great gift but you gave C and I a good solid 5 minutes of belly aching, tear streaming laughter.  I can't remember the last time I laughed that hard at something so downright silly.  When was the last time you found your "Child within"?