The Books

So last year for Christmas I made Jaron and Lily each a book for Christmas. I wrote a little story about each of them and used pictures of them as illustrations. It was a huge hit and they still read them at least once a day. There is so much psychology and child development about why a child would love this and why its so good for them- motivating them to read, making them feel unique and loved, secure in who they are, etc. but really, it was just plain fun to do and and even more fun to see how much they value them. I've been reading (well, more like skimming) quite a few self-help books and am totally overwhelmed by all the five steps and little phrases I'm supposed to run through my head when I can look at life, relationships, conversations, activities, and see how the right things naturally form when the core issues of my heart are dealt with. These books are a great example. I realized that all of my kids' photos were on the computer and I didn't have pictures albums of them for the year and thought that these books would be a creative way to do it and wanted to make them Christmas gifts that were personal rather than generic. I didn't read about child's self esteem, I just knew. Enough of that tangent.

Since they were such a big hit Corey and I thought we would do it again. This year Jaron's will be a book of separate poems- that's what he's really into right now. He and Corey read two huge Shel Silverstein books in about a week so Corey is using his poems as a model.

Lily's will be about a busy day in her life- full of dancing, reading, singing, playing, whining, eating, not eating, going potty, spending time with family and friends, and finally sleeping.

I'll be posting pages here and there since getting these put together will be a pretty big part of my life for the next three weeks... after I get Lily Halloween costume made.