There is a book that we have that is all about teaching your children to read. It has nice pictures, and it is in basic rhyme form and not particularly impressive, but it has taught me a few things. The back of it says the purpose of this book is to 'encourage parents to discover the joy and value of sharing books, stories and songs with their children'. I am sure that I have already bored whoever reads this to death with stories about how important reading is to me, but it hadn't occurred to me that I should tells stories in my own words to her. I do sing to her, even though my voice is nothing to write home about haha. She does seem to enjoy it-so I figured, well I'm already sharing book and songs with her-I might as well try to do the last one and see what I think.

So I started telling Addy the story of us-meaning me and Lester. About how we met, how we fell in love, the circumstances surrounding it, etc etc. At first, I felt a little silly. She is after all just shy of six months-its not like she can talk and I wasn't sure if she would respond at all. But I am so glad I kept talking and telling her. Sure she didn't understand all the words-but she could clearly see that I was talking to her and she was so interested. She responded to the different tones that I naturally fell into while telling the story-if I talked fast and excited she smiled really big and would move back and forth flailing her arms and legs in excitement. If I started to tell her about how I was feeling doubtful or sad at some point or another she would be still and even stop sucking on her pacifier and lean forward. If I came to a suspenseful part [not that the story is all that exciting haha] she would go all wide eyed open mouthed. It was just fun telling her about how and when she became a possibility. It was also nice re-living all those moments in my head. All the twitterpated feelings, and remembering how I wanted burst into a million pieces because it was all just so exciting and scary at the same time. I don't really ever forget that I am in love with Lester, but it is fun to feel and remember the steps that got us here and it does make me feel like I could burst again because of how much I love this man.

Anyways-this chapter of our story has been at times a hard one-it feels a bit like the spot in the super long novels you kind of want to skip to make sure everything works out for the better. But I am glad that it is still a part of our book and our life, and I look forward to telling her this story someday. I am glad that I can tell her just how much I truly love her of course, but how much truly love her Daddy. He is my best friend and I think that she can see and feel that through these stories even if she doesn't understand the words. I will continue to tell her stories and I hope she will continue to both hear me and feel my meaning. I would suggest it to anyone out there!