M, a new reader

My daughter is reading really well for a five year old - and I'm so proud. She's now reading books to me that I used to read to her. I think the proudest moment was when she finished reading One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish to me. The look on her face was priceless.

But I have to say that getting her to read takes a little bribing. I love the local libraries and am SO glad they did an outstanding job on the summer reading programs this year. Southlake really pulled out all the stops. M would get excited whenever she reached a goal.

"Mom, let's go to the library!" she'd say excitedly.

She has improved so much over the summer. I don't know how we're going to keep her reading in the fall. Hopefully she'll get a great boost from when she goes to school. She's going to be assigned a reading buddy (one of the older kids at school) - she's very excited as she wanted one last year.

M is also going through a little stress right now with school starting next Wednesday. Some of her friends from last year aren't going to the same school as she's going to and it's a source of stress. She's also not too sure about meeting new friends and saying good bye to summer friends.

We're also going to try something different this year - no day care. M is getting pretty self sufficient. When she hit one, we had to move her out of the house because I couldn't get anything done. Now, she goes and plays on her computer.

She's also expressed an interest in going back to swim school. She had a little water scare over Memorial Day while I was in the hospital and hasn't gotten her sea legs back yet. We need to get her comfortable in the water again as we've got two great vacations coming up - both with trips to beaches.