Harry Potter and the Magical Blanket

Estin's reading has really taken off this year, thanks to quality schooling and his own enthusiasm. He's gone from barely reading to really reading: with H Potter, he is now following along and even reading some of the sentences to me. As reading together is the stand-by for Estin and I, so is the story he often gets from mum. Spiderman stories are always requested, and lately the number of rescues Spiderman will undertake is a negotiating point. Spiderman turns out to be rather ordinary off stage, being occasionally prone to bouts of laziness and over-indulgence in ice cream, but that's another story altogether.

For EJ and I, the last couple of years have meant a lot of Harry Potter. We get into other books now and then, but it comes back to HP every time. There are occasional weekend morning readings at home, or midday events in the tent. Our first two weeks in Dunedin, we would even head to the hot tub and have a soak with Harry P. Increasingly, we visit with Harry on the couch in front of the fire. But most of the reading gets done in Estin's bedroom. He uses the electric blanket to warm the bed and then flicks off the heater before climbing in. Me, I go right ahead and jump in too. There is almost no better feeling than my back hitting the toasty warm bed in a chilly room. That electric blanket is truly magical. And off we go with the book.