Her Love for Boo

Today's gift is her love for Boo.

My daughter loves the movie Monsters Inc.  This movie came out when she was 7 1/2 weeks old!  I don't know when the first time she saw it was, but I do remember it was instantly a favorite!   It was this movie which got her saying the word "boo".  When she was little many people would come up to us and say she looked like Boo in the movie.  And she did.

This summer as you know Monster's University came out and I can not wait to add it to her collection of movies.  There is something about Boo, Mike and Sulley that she loves.  Maybe it's just the fact they make her laugh and she is happy when watching them.

With all the hype of the new Monster's University movie the stores have all kinds of Monster's themed items...books, dolls, toys, games, etc.  Right before our road trip I bought her a new Monster's book...Boo on the Loose.  It is an early reader one and the reason I bought it.  I was hoping and thinking we could read it together.  What a better motivator too, than to read about her favorite characters!

We read it over our trip, but tonight was the first night she was "awake" enough when I put her to bed to be interested in reading it with me.  I let her read all the words she could say (some required a partial prompt) where others did not.  She said all three characters names by me just pointing to their pictures on the page....(Boo=Boo, Mike=Mi, and Sulley=I would say Sull and she would say E).  This part of reading the story was her favorite!

After we finished the book, she looked at me and said in her most sincere voice, "Mommy"....which to me means she was so happy!  I asked her if that was fun and she said, "ya"!

I love taking what she knows and what she can say and use it in a totally appropriate, typical setting. Of course the book isn't on peer level, but I don't care.  It is on her level...and a level I never thought she would be on.

This was taken in September of 2011 at Disney!

Here is a quote for today...in honor of the movie here is a quote from Monster's Inc....

You're not supposed to name it.  Once you name it, you start getting attached to it- Mike to Sulley in regards to naming the little girl, Boo.

Story Time Shared with her Sister

Today's gift is story time shared with her sister.

My gift today, is short and very sweet.  Tonight when I was putting my daughter to bed, my middle daughter came into her room and asked if she could listen to the story with us.  I said sure.

Then I asked my daughter if she wanted her sister to read to us and she replied with a "la"...which is her yes.  So my middle daughter gave her sister a choice of two books and she picked the one she wanted her sister to read to her.

It was so sweet watching them share this moment together.  Looking back on when we started a family I never would have thought my middle daughter would be playing the role of "big" sister to her "big" sister.  I always envisioned my oldest daughter teaching her "little" sister so many things...like riding her bike, tying her shoes, how to read, how to count and everything in between.

While my oldest daughter is not teaching her little sister the "typical" things a big sister teaches her little sister, she is teaching her much more.  She is teaching her patience.  She is teaching her about unconditional love.  She is teaching her about believing.  She is teaching her about how to treat everyone, no matter their differences with respect and how we are all the same on the inside.  She is teaching her compassion, empathy and how to be sympathetic.  She is teaching her life's greatest lessons at such an early age.

Do I get sad when I think about the things my oldest daughter can not do with or for her little sister?  Absolutely.  Every day there are times when I think about it.  I get sad for both of my girls.

But then I think about how incredibly blessed I am that my two girls have the amazing bond they do share.  To see them interact with each other and to truly love each other means the world to me.  At the end of the day, it doesn't really matter who is reading to who.  What matters is that there is love, friendship and a bond between them, as this is something no one can take away....not even the Rett Monster.

Here is a quote for today...

Sometimes being a sister is even better than being a superhero- Author Unknown



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365 Days Gift

Learning to read

Today's gift is learning to read.

This gift is one I truly never thought would happen. I believe in an earlier post, I mentioned how she was at the early stages of reading...reading site words.

Today she is reading full sentences! She is reading them out loud if she is able to say the word and make approximations for the words she can not say. Equally as amazing, she can read the sentence to herself silently!

The three sentences she worked on today are: I see a horse and a boy. I see a fish and a yellow ball. I see a yellow car.

The reading program they use with her at school is called Edmark. Her one to one really likes the program and likes how she responds to the program. And I have to agree....she really likes it!

Seeing the confidence beam from her face as she is reading is an extra gift!

Thanks to my daughter's willingness to learn, her one to one who believes in her (and pushes her) and Edmark we are able to read together the level one books. We are able to hear her read to us! This is just the beginning f great things to come.

 

Here are two quotes for today....

Reading is to the mind, what exercise is to the body- Sir Richard Steele

She turned her can'ts into cans and her dreams into plans- Kobi Yamada