Little Readers

Hello

Hope this finds everyone doing quite well. Sorry I disappeared for a while - got in a bit busy and in a funk - glad to say I am out of it now. The kids were wonderful on Mother's Day. Karl and Abby were at Grandma and Grandpa Haskins' house overnight (they got to sleep in their trailer). It was strange to wake up on Mother's Day without the kids jumping in bed and shouting those sweet words. Mike must have sensed my feelings on this (or he is just a smart guy) but he went up to get Aine from bed and trained her a bit because while I was getting ready for church, Aine ran into the bathroom, jumped in and shouted "Happy Mother's Day Mommy" so wonderfully that my heart nearly burst. It was great to see the other two kids as well(6 hours later), and though I think I was more excited to see them on this day, their hugs and kisses were still quite loving.



Nothing exceptional has happened in the last few days. My belly keeps growing bigger and bigger - as does the rest of me. The kids are excited for summer and cannot get enough of being outside with this warm weather. Mike, I think, looks forward to school being done so that I am not so bombarded with work at night. His job stays at work so he can hangout and relax and take on more household responsibility than me - who has school work to deal with. This summer will be a much needed break from stress as well as a happy time with new baby.



Well, now that Abby reads, she wants to try more and more books. It is almost like she isn't fully convinced that she can, in fact, read actual big kid books so she grabs more and more and tries and is successful and tries again and at some point I imagine she will believe that she is now an actual reader. With Abby's new talent, Aine is also quite in to books; she wants to "read" too, so she tells me what all her pictures are and counts things and says her colors. She does not like to wait for Abby's turn to be over so she will sing and talk during Abby's reading time. I think she may be beginning to see that her actions only make Abby's time longer. Abby had read her Drip, Drop, Plip Plop book so many times that we made a much needed trip too our local library. I am not sure Aine quite understands the library-all she knows (and loves) is that they have a lot of books and she can take some with her(returning them part is hard, thankfully there is a drop-box she likes filling).
Karl is a big reader too. Lately he has been staying up way too late reading at night. A few weeks back his dad got him the Harry Potter book #1. I thought it was a bit ambitious but it took Karl all of two weeks of reading only before bed time to finish the book. We quickly got him #2, which he stays up to read as well. Last night he read so much that this morning, Mike couldn't get him out of bed for ten minutes. What a spot to be in...as parents, readers, and me an English teacher - it is awesome that all our kids are so in to books - at the same time, we have to be able to wake them up in the morning, so where do you draw the line. All our kids, since they were still in cribs, have always gone to bed with books. In the morning, the floor is covered, not with toys or clothes, but books. Again - in one way - wonderful, in another, get some sleep so you won't be such cranker-pants-impossible-to-get-out-of-bed-in-the-morning-pain-in-the-butts.
There could be bigger problems, I know...