Special afternoons

Every day around noon Clay takes a nap. While he is napping Hailey and I have our own special time together that I've come to cherish.

First, she and I pick out books to read. We sit on my bed with the pillows propped against the wall and we read our way through our stack of books...

Next, she holds her little red magna-doodle and I hold mine and we practice writing letters. I write a letter on my magna-doodle and she copies writing it the best she can on hers. After she writes her letter I give her a chocolate chip for her efforts. Chocolate chips are a great motivator to practice letter writing for both of us :). Letter by letter we make our way through about half of the alphabet, then we save the next half for the next day...

Oh, and we have great conversations! They are my favorite! I love conversing with pre-schoolers. First, their pronunciation of the English language always has a little twinge of cuteness in it. Hailey is no exception--she can't quite pronounce her r sounds perfectly yet and words like "spagetti" still come out "pisgetti" sometimes. Her voice is so sweet and high! It's the perfect little girl voice. Next, her thoughts are just so sweet and cute to hear. I love hearing her view of the world around her. It is always so refreshingly different than mine!! For those reasons I cannot get through a conversation with Hailey where I'm fully focused on her and really listening to what she's saying without smiling at some point.

We always end our "special time" with her playing, or coloring and me doing something relaxing (most often I end up taking a quick nap myself because that's what reading a stack of kid books right after lunch will do to you!)

I'm grateful for the opportunity I have each afternoon to spend one-on-one time with our little girl.

**Post script:** Hailey LOVES our little garden. (I remember Miles being the same way at her age. I think gardens are a super fun thing for the preschool age.) She loves checking on our seeds and she's in love with the little plants. Yesterday afternoon she ate an apple then came to me with five little seeds in her hand. She said, "I saved the apple seeds and now I'm going to plant them!" And out she went immediately to the garden to plant her little apple seeds. I had to get a picture. I love this girl!!