Laughing at the closet

Tonight, while getting ready for bed, Evelyn opens the closet in the bedroom to put her dirty clothes in the hamper and starts laughing. I ask what's so funny and she tells me it reminds me of a comic from the Calvin and Hobbes book she is reading.

She has always been attracted to the cartoon books on the shelf in my office and a week or two ago prevailed on me to read her some comics from a Calvin and Hobbes collection (that I got when I was not much older than her). She asked if she could keep it to read in her room before bed.

She's picking up how to read after many weeks of learning with Steph in homeschool. But she keeps insisting she can't read, until she decides to read a sign or a box or TV commercial and then ask us what it means. She hates reading books out loud to me and always protests and asks that I read them to her.

So imagine my surprise when she tells me the reason she is laughing and recites and the arc of a Calvin and Hobbes comic to me: Calvin is looking for his jacket and looks under the dumb bed and in the dumb kitchen but finally realizes it's in the dumb closet.

I didn't recall that exact comic but it sounded like the right kind of humor. And sure enough, it was there in the book:

She had read it to herself, remembered the punchline and humor, and retold it from memory. I'm so proud.