Reading to Himself

Whenever we put Evan in bed, either for the night or just for a nap, he doesn't go to sleep immediately.  He'll spend anywhere from 15 minutes to an hour and a half talking to himself, singing, playing with the stuffed animals or cars we let him take to bed, whatever.  Most of the time after a while he'll drift off on his own, and since he stays in his room and is pretty quiet the whole time we're fine with this.  Sometimes at nap time when he's gone on for an hour or more we'll go in and tell him he needs to go to sleep, and after the inevitable meltdown (we think he gets his hopes up that his "nap" is over when he sees us come in, and pairing the realization that the exact opposite is happening with some parental chastisement, however slight, sends him into a brief tailspin) he does go to sleep.

Today was one of those days when Evan wasn't going to sleep during his nap time and he'd been talking to himself for over an hour.  As Steph was about to open his door and lay down the law she noticed he was reading one of his favorite books, Richard Scarry's Shapes and Opposites, to himself in bed.  So before she told him he needed to stop reading and get some sleep she took a little video:

Of course, Evan doesn't really know how to read yet.  He knows a little more than half of the alphabet (maybe closer to two thirds), but he doesn't know how letters go together to make words.  He is pretty good at memorizing books, though, as you can see.