Comic books and others

Two nights ago, Josie became visibly upset at bedtime because she couldn't find her comic book. At first, I assumed that this was the latest phase in trying to be like her sister as comic books are something that Madeleine and Michael enjoy together. Eventually, though I realized that she wasn't saying 'comic book' but 'Carl book'.

Two weeks ago, Madeleine found 'Carl's Birthday' at a used book store so we purchased it for her and Josie. The following weekend, Madeleine found 'Carl Goes Shopping' at the library booksale and asked Michael to buy it for Josie. Josie likes them both a lot, but the second one has turned out into Josie's new favorite book. She asks for it every night, and becomes upset if she can't locate it. In turn, it's of course driving Madeleine, who likes a lot of variety at story time, crazy.

Another issue is that when Madeleine was small, we told her how the little girl in the books is named Madeleine. This isn't in every book, but is in at least one of them and Madeleine has an amazing memory. The first time we were 'reading' (the books are primarily pictures with just a few words on the opening page and 'Good Dog Carl' on the final one) one of our new Carl books, I started out and called the little girl the baby. Madeleine immediately said, "No, that's Madeleine" to which Josie, perhaps predictably responded "No, that's Josie." So there's that too - the girls warring over who is really in the book - Madeleine or Josie.