reading and writing

Joel is learning to read now. He read a Biscuit early reader to me in the car the other day and surprised me with this new skill. So, we are dutifully encouraging him these days with more from Allison's early reader collections (he's reading her guided reading books from kindergarten with us, etc.).
Last night he wanted to write words on paper, so he spent a lot of time asking what words he should write, then sounding them out and writing them. He wrote yes, leapster (l-e-p-s-t-r), blanket (b-l-a-k-i-t), tooth, teeth, bear (b-e-r), and we ended the night with pillow (p-i-l-o).

As with any new skill, he's obsessed with mastering it.
I think it's keeping him up at night.
After I left him in his room, he was still thinking of words to spell. As he was getting in his bed, he stopped for a minute, thinking, then said, "I can spell 'block' in the morning."

it's a "tore"tillia

As we're enjoying a family meal of beef fajitas, the kids were happily eating -- and playing with -- their tortillias (the only part of the meal they ate, by the way, but at least we didn't fix them hotdogs while we ate "real" food).

Joel starts to pick his up and it tears. He said "Mine tore!!" then thinks a second before announcing his brilliant revelation:
"Hey! That's why it's called a 'tore' tillia! Because you tear it! See, Mommy, I tore it."