Bragging rights

Okay, so I try not to brag.  I like to tell about how my sons are growing and learning, and how beautiful I think they are.  I mean, everyone thinks their kids are smart and beautiful, and not everyone necessarily wants to hear another parent going on and on and on about said beauty and smarts.  But I was actually astonished by something Ewan did today, and I really wanted to share.  Technically, I'm bragging on his behalf, because it's certainly not my accomplishment.   He has been practicing sounding words out for a while now, and we'll be in the store, and he'll randomly tell me what package says, or the title of a book.  Usually pretty easy words.  And lately, he's been "reading" some of his Thomas books to me, but it's 99.9% memorization.  I've been curious how much he was actually reading, versus memorizing, but he's heard all of his books so much, it was hard to tell.  Well, we got five free books off of a cereal box offer, and up until today, he wasn't interested in having them read to him at all.  Tonight he picked one of them as part of his usual three bedtime stories.  First I was reading to Fynn, while Ewan sat quietly looking at his books.  Keep in mind, I have NEVER read this book to him, it's called Things that are Most in the World.  I looked over from my perch with Fynn, and Ewan was READING that book.  Really reading it.  He got stuck on a few of the bigger, strange words (like "teensie-weensiest) but otherwise he read that book all to himself.  I almost fell out of my chair.  We showed him long ago how to sound things out, almost on a whim, and not expecting him to catch on yet, and haven't worked with him much otherwise.  This is something he has largely taught himself.  I am so proud of him, and it literally made my day.