Winnnie the Pooh and You-Know-Who

A couple of years ago, I picked up a cool old copy of A.A. Milne's The House at Pooh Corner at a great used book store. Earlier this month, I started reading it to the kids during lunch. It was our first chapter-book read-aloud, and the kids seemed to enjoy it, especially Meg, who was able to catch some of the humor. But when we finished the last chapter and moved on to something else, it was Matthew who continued to request that we "ree Pooh" for several days. That intrigued me, since I really wasn't sure how much he got from the book. It's wonderfully winsome, but it has many more words and many fewer pictures than anything we've read before.

Then last night at the dinner table, David pointed to Matthew's bib, which features the entire cast of Dinsey's Winnie the Pooh series. "Matthew," he said, "who's on your bib?"

Matthew looked down, then up. "Tee-ger!" he announced, smiling. (That would be "Tigger" for everyone else.)

"Ohhh," said Daddy. "And, Matthew, who's on your toothbrush?"

Matthew thought for the merest second before grinning, "Tee-ger!"

"How can Tigger be in two places at one time?" Daddy demanded incredulously.

"Bounce!" Matthew replied.

And that's how I know my boy understood The House At Pooh Corner after all.