Dia

Back in April, the library celebrated "Dia de Los Ninos, Dia de los Libros" which is Spanish for "Day of the Child, Day of the Books". There were many wonderful events that took place that day. We had African drumming, Taikwondo, storytelling, drama activities, and so much more. What a wonderful way to celebrate children of all cultures!

I worked the event, but David and Xander came to visit. The pictures above were taken by my friend and colleague, Varanrat Torok. She took these photos during the African drumming event which was Xander's favorite. I should have known that he'd be drawn to the loud music with a strong beat! He has so much rhythm!!!

Work - Every Child Ready to Read, Part I

I've started a new project at work that is a grant-funded program for children in low-socioeconomic families and specific zip codes. It's called the "Jump Start Reading at Home" program. I will see each of my centers (I have two for this specific program) twice a month for story times and once a month for parent workshops. By the end of the six-month program each child will have 15 books to take home and start their own home library. We're following the Every Child Ready to Read @ your library model that teaches early literacy and the six building blocks of reading. These building blocks are vocabulary, print awareness, phonological awareness, print motivation, narrative skills, and letter knowledge.

Vocabulary simply means knowing the names of things.

Print awareness is noticing print, knowing how to handle a book, and knowing how to follow the words on a page.

Phonological awareness is being able to hear and play with the smaller sounds in words.

Print motivation is being interested in and enjoying books.

Narrative skills means being able to describe things and events and tell stories.

Letter knowledge means knowing letters are different from each other, knowing their names and sounds and recognizing letters everywhere.

In the days ahead, and as I provide these story times and workshops to our community, I will share more of how to incorporate these activities in your children's daily activities. It's really very easy...and lots of fun!


This is a picture of me with some of my kiddos - Aubrielle and Mali! The book I'm reading is titled "Pete the Cat" - it's a cute book. Be sure to check it out at your local library!

BabyD

One of the most important things to me in life is my friendships. I am so blessed and honored to have friends like Scott and Mindie. Today we participated in their new son, Charlie's, dedication to Christ at Ridge church. What a wonderful event! We had the privilege of being among the first families to ever celebrate BabyD at Ridge last July with our sweet Xander. Having gone through this just a few months ago has allowed me to appreciate the whole experience that much more. The parents of the child to be dedicated are given "homework" - some messages to listen to and questions to discuss as a married couple and parents of this new child. For David and I, we learned a lot about what each of us was anticipating and were able to discuss things that might not have come up in a positive way. Watching Scott and Mindie sitting there with their new son reminded me just how amazing our God is and how truly blessed we are to have our boys. I know they'll look back on this day with fondness just as I did today. I'm reminded that what we have on this earth is truly temporary and all belongs to God - even my son. I'm thankful that He's given me this season to enjoy raising Xander in a godly way and watch him grow up to be a man after God's own heart.

30 days 'til David's 30th birthday.

May 14th marked 30 days until David's 30th birthday and I've decided to celebrate with a little something special each day. I want to recognize him or do something to remind him that he's loved for the 30 days leading up to his big day. I don't look at 30 as us getting old, just getting better! So for the first day I gave him a card letting him know what my plan is for the next thirty days. At 29 days I wrote a message to him in the shower with children's bathtub crayons.


For 28 days I made a little sign that I propped up at his dinner plate which consisted of his favorite takeout meal - Mexican food, specifically cheese dip with chorizo (which he did not know about and was thrilled that I went out and got!). Today, at 27 days Xander and I wrote him a message and drew some pictures outside with sidewalk chalk. I am having so much fun with this! I'm incredibly thankful to have such an amazing husband who makes me excited to serve, love, cherish, be spontaneous with, create, play, laugh, cry, and just all around enjoy life. I wouldn't want to do it with anyone else and I'm so happy we're together!

iPad!

Perhaps a new post should be about my awesome family, or at least my sweet son, but I'm going to post instead about my new iPad! What a wonderful Mother's Day present! So I guess, in a way, this post is about Xander since I wouldn't have mother's day without him! :)


This has been an awesome Mother's weekend (not just day!). We spent Saturday with Grandma, Grandpa and Aunt Becky. Grandpa bought a new boat, then we shopped at the mall (one of Grandma's fave things) and went out to dinner. Sunday we spent time with Mimi and Papa over at Aunt Erin's and Uncle Nathan's House. Xander loves his cousins and had a great time, even if he is sick. Unfortunately he has hand-foot-mouth disease. He's quite the trooper, though, and still went along with all our festivities over the weekend - and with a good attitude!

So, that leaves today for me! Xander and David decided I should have my own day, so they're spoiling me all day today. Xander even cooperated by sleeping in late -8am, then David made French toast and we had breakfast together as a family. They gave me my awesome iPad and I've been playing with it all morning! Xander's taking a good nap and we'll all eat lunch together. David's grilling steaks and asparagus for dinner and we're going to the park to play this afternoon. What more could I ask for? What an amazing day!!

Happy New Year!

What a year it's already been and will continue to be! David and I have so much to look forward to this year. We're so excited about the new little bundle of joy we'll be welcoming into our lives in just 5 short weeks. I look forward to meeting this little guy who's been kicking around and has recently started making his presence known with sharp jabs! He's already changed our lives so much and I know it will continue to change more and more after he's here.

The past couple of months have been so busy. We enjoyed Thanksgiving in Nashville with my Dad and Karen. My Aunt Karen was there and I always enjoy seeing her. We missed Cheryl this year. She always adds so much to the group, but I'm hoping to make a trip to VA to see both of them a few weeks after Xander's born. There were many people in Nashville and it was nice to catch up with everyone and enjoy the time there.

We also went to Johnson City to see David's family. We were only there for one night, but it was great to see everyone. We returned to Johnson City the week before Christmas for a joint celebration of Karen's 50th birthday, a baby shower for David and I, and to celebrate Christmas with the fam. It was a wonderful weekend!

There were so many parties, engagements and activities in the month of December that I don't even remember everything that happened! Erin and Nathan moved into their new house and we helped them out one weekend. Nathan's birthday celebration fell on his actual birthday this year and was fun to celebrate. David's office had a Christmas party that turned out to be pretty exciting! They had a game that all the employees participated in and kept everyone extremely occupied. My office had a potluck lunch together which was nice. I always enjoy getting together with my department in a social environment - they're so much fun! We also had a Christmas party with our small group from church. It was so nice to fellowship and exchange gifts with such great friends.

And of course we had Christmas with our families. I think my favorite part was actually being at home with David on Christmas Eve, baking goodies, watching Christmas movies together and getting ready for the next day. Then we were able to spend all morning and most of the afternoon together at home, just the two of us. He made french toast for me and I made sausage balls for him. We "opened" our stockings together, watched more Christmas movies and enjoyed each other's company. It was so great! I will value that time we had together, just the two of us, knowing that next year will be completely different!

I also enjoy spending time with our families over the Christmas holidays. We've really enjoyed the traditions that we've made as a couple with our families. We celebrate with each family separately and then everyone gets together to celebrate jointly. I really love this! We also got to visit Gran, celebrate with the Howell's and go to church on Sunday with everyone. It was great!

For New Year's Eve David and I decided we needed to do something that we may not have a chance to do again for awhile after the baby's born, so we bought tickets to the Avett Brothers concert and had a wonderful time! We had a relaxed supper at Jason's Deli and then walked over to the Belk Theatre. It was something else that I'll value for a long time to come. I'm excited about having a baby, but I do realize that it will change our lives forever! The good thing is that we've had so much time, four years now, to spend just the two of us. I wouldn't change that for anything.

So, as the new year is just getting started I like to reflect back on what happened last year, but even more exciting to me is the prospect of what is yet to come. God has blessed us so much and I am so thankful to Him for all the good things in my life. And even through the bad times, He was the one who saw me through. My prayer is that this year will be one that reflects His love and commitment and that everyone who sees me and my family will see the Lord.

Yikes!

It's been 2 months since my last post! Well, let me tell you that plenty of things have been happening in the Little household.

This baby of ours that we have so proudly and excitedly named Alexander David (we're going to call him Xander) is growing so much! I had my last doctor's appointment on Nov. 17 and all is going well. Xander seems healthy with a heartbeat of 140, my blood pressure is good, there's no protein in my urine, and I feel fine! Xander moves so much now. He seems to have always been a mover; I felt his first movements at about 16 weeks and David was able to feel his first movement just one week later. But nothing compares to what he does now. You can see my tummy jump every once in a while and I feel him so often. This is such a blessing to me and helps me know that all is going well with my little son. I'm two weeks into my third trimester and I'm looking forward to every moment of it!

Just a couple of weeks ago I returned from an amazing trip to New York City with my "girls". My mom, Ame, Erin, Becky and I all ventured to the Big Apple for shows and excitement. We definitely had both! We walked until we thought our feet would fall off and we laughed until we saw stars. Speaking of stars, Becky and I are sure that we saw Salma Hayek in FAO Schwartz! We went to see Wicked, my all-time favorite musical, and Hairspray. We were able to see George Wendt's (you know Norm from Cheers?) last performance as the mom in Hairspray. It was great! We also went to Radio City Music Hall to see Radio City's Christmas Spectacular...and they're right! It was truly spectacular! We went to Ground Zero and saw all of the construction that they're doing there now. We shopped and ate and ate some more. We went to Grand Central Station and to a Street Fair. We saw the New York Public Library and the Chrystler Building. We rode the Subway to the Museum of Natural History. We walked around the museum for a few hours and saw so many great things! Mom, Ame and Becky were even on the Today Show! What a great time we had! I am so thankful for the time I had with all of them. It was so special to take a trip with such wonderful women. I'm reminded each time I see or talk to any of them how blessed I am to have such a wonderful family - natural and in-laws.

I definitely have the most wonderful husband. When I returned home (around 11pm - much later than we anticipated due to a late flight) he was there waiting for me. He'd made dessert for me, a yummy chocolate lava cake with vanilla ice cream. He had bought flowers and set them up on the coffee table so that they were the first thing I saw when I walked into the house. He had cleaned the house and touched up the paint in our bathroom, a project that he had so selflessly taken on since I'm not allowed to help paint anymore. And on top of all of that he had bought a TV for me that he had hung on the wall and set up perfectly. This was his anniversary gift to me. We were married four years on November 27, Thanksgiving day this year. I am so proud to be his wife! He takes care of me tirelessly and loves me endlessly. Just one more reason that I feel so blessed!