So this is a first- I’m recording the date of something that Natalie accomplished, and yet I don’t have a clue when my first-born accomplished this. It’s usually the opposite, right? We tend to record all the 1st’s for our firstborn and then subsequent children live in the busyness of it all, or, like in my case Natalie ends up living in the shadow of all that Jacob is accomplishing as he forges into new territory.

I don’t remember exactly when Jacob started reading. I know that now as an almost 6-year old he is a very proficient reader. But when it all began- yeah, I don’t remember nor did I write it down. Oops. Oh well, can’t feel guilty about that.

So I’m going to record this so I remember forever, at least for Natalie. Tonight was the very 1st night that she read a book to our family. She has been sounding out words and giving it a try as I’ve coached her along, in the quietness of our together time. But tonight it was Daddy, Mama and Jacob sitting on the couch all ears for Natalie as she read a Level 1 book: Goldilocks and the Three Bears. I can not even sufficiently describe the radiance on her face as she heard the three of us cheering for her and clapping for her at the culmination of the story. She did it! And she sure was proud of herself! And I was very, very proud of her. This was a book we just checked out of the library yesterday, so it was the first time she read through it.

I’m one very proud mama right now. I love, love, love that our family loves to read. I love it that piles of books are everywhere in our living room, our rooms and our cars. I love it that my children love to grab books as though they were candy. They inhale stories. I am so thankful for libraries. At this point we would have already spent a small fortune if we had been buying new books for these past years. So thankful for the accessibility of books. So thankful for the way I can almost visibly see my children’s minds being stretched with vocabulary acquisition and new ideas and imaginative stories. Thankful to God for the complexity and gift of Natalie’s 4-year old ears, eyes, mouth and brain that can work together in a miraculous way to see letters on a page and know what to do with them. Yay for the joy of reading!!!