"Reading" to Himself

Early yesterday morning we heard Oliver's voice right outside our bedroom door.  With morning grogginess, it took me a moment to figure out what he was talking about.  Then I recognized that he was "reading" himself books that I hadn't realized he had memorized.  The days of Oliver yelling to us from his bed that he was awake seemed so long ago.  I guess my conversations with him about respecting others who are still sleeping and the need for him to entertain himself (quietly) in the morning might have fine sunk in. 

I noticed Chris was awake and whispered, asking him if he noticed Oliver was reading to himself.  We lay there quietly and listened to the innocent sound of Oliver's four-year-old voice as he read himself Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See and Wet Dog.  It was such a treat to listen to the sound of Oliver's voice when he thought no one else was listening.  I was amazed at how well he knew most of the words.  Of course I know most of those books by heart now too, and so I laughed when he clearly paraphrased a longer section.  It was fun to hear his take on the story.  Then he picked up a picture book and started with, "This is a front-end loader. And on this page, these are firetrucks and so on."  He talked out loud to himself for a little while longer while he pointed out pictures.  I wondered how long he would keep reading, but when Soren stirred, we knew it was time to get out of bed.  Oliver heard us rustle, dropped his book and popped into our room.  Our impromptu story hour was over.