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Happy Birthday Siena

New friends of mine had a baby tonight. When I say new friends, I want you to know that these are not the new kind of friends you move on from. No, these are the kind of friends you meet and wonder where they have been your whole life. These are the kind of friends that remind you that God is good and big and that he brings all things/people together in perfect timing.

So join me in welcoming little Siena girl to the world tonight. As I write this she is only twenty minutes old and I am getting text updates from a friend who is in the hospital waiting room in New York. The last update was “she came out chubby, that’s all we know.” And then I started to cry, right here in Starbucks.

My very next thought was how I wanted to hold her and how I really wanted to read to her, Mr.Brown Can Moo, Can You? Literacy, it runs in my veins.

I recently spent time with Liana, the child of another friend of mine, she is only a year old, but her first word was book. In fact when her mom took a book out of the bag her eyes lit up. Liana’s amazing mother told me that when she reads Hop on Pop to Liana, she’ll say “hop, hop” in her little Liana voice with inflection and excitement— just like her mom does as she reads. Insert melting heart here.

Then there is Jerus, he’s a pretty perfect gentleman that I’ve had the joy of watching grow over the past six years. I’ve spent plenty of time reading to him and doing all the voices. In fact when he was a baby and he would cry I used to just quote lines from Snuggle Puppy and he would stop crying to hear the familiar words. Last week I had the pleasure of listening to him read Little Bear to me. I practically had tears in my eyes as he read the first sentence to me; I was so proud of him.

I love the rich legacy of literacy that we pass on to our children. Some of my favorite memories of growing up involve reading books in bed with my Mom. On dark nights with a full moon, I can still hear my mom’s voice in my head reading aloud from Owl Moon.

In my classroom, I’ve recently been spending some time reading Bronx Masquerade to my kids. They’re fourteen. They don’t need to be read to. However, there is something about the sharing of written words that brings us together. I live for these moments; when I am not their teacher but the reader of a story that we journey through together.

To the Beautiful, Amazing Siena: Happy Birthday; I can’t wait to watch your eyes get wide as you hear the rhythms that written words bring to your ears; I can’t wait to hear you sound out your first words; I can’t wait to journey with you and discover all over again the mystery of written words.

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5 replies on “Happy Birthday Siena”

As a passionate mom and teacher, I had one of those awesome, soul-gripping moments at a baseball practice over the holiday weekend. Many of the people reading this may know that I have three VERY active kids and spend hours and hours sitting at practices and this weekend was no exception.

I was finishing up reading about 200 pages from the 9 different literature study books my students are reading together and a girl about 13 years old sat next to me and was staring at my pile of books. She finally got up the courage to ask if she could borrow one of them–any of you who know me know that I immediately gave her the book and said to read away.

I did ask if she knew the book at all and her face lit up and she began to talk…an hour later, we parted ways but not before I had an AMAZING talk with her about authors and how she had read others by this author and was reading this particular book at school and forgot it over the break and how it was KILLING her to not know what was happening.

She left with the book and I may never see it again, but it was worth it because on my way to the car with my boys, I was flagged down by her mom. She wanted to thank me because her daughter was often teased because of reading struggles at her own school (not a Twin Valley school) and she had never had an adult or teacher speak to her like her opinion was valued.

I was just enjoying a fellow reader and passing the time, but it made me think about how we need to celebrate and share our passion for reading with others of all ages–it is never too late!!

And Sierra, if you are reading this–READ ON!

This was a beautiful post. I really enjoyed reading it- the way it was written, and your point. Quite clear. I wish all parents passed the joy of a book on to their students. I think something is very obvious here- that it starts from DAY ONE, before the child can even speak.

<3

Your love for reading and your love for people are so contagious. You inspire me. Love you friend 🙂

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