Thanks!

Look at this awesome collection of books. My friend, Lori, sent these to Sera this week. Lori runs the Media Center at a high school in Kansas. For those of you who have been out of school for a while, it's what we used to call the library. School libraries are far more than books now, so they're called media centers.

Lori and I met in our sophomore year at Bay High School in Panama City, Florida. We've never lived in the same town, rarely the same state, since we graduated from high school. We both took different paths, yet we've both ended up teaching in high schools. She's a wonderful friend. Months, years for that matter, have gone by between conversations, yet when we meet again, it's like we were never separated. You know a true friend when you don't suffer through those awkward silences. Lori and her husband, Eddie, have raised three wonderful children. I hope to do half the job she has with Sera.

Thanks again, Lori. I promise we do and will read to Sera every day.

Receiving this big batch of books and seeing this library on Erin's blog reminded me that I had saved the link and planned on adding it to my blog, too. If you scroll down the right side, you'll see Sera's library. I put this on here for Jim and me to use so we have a record of books Sera already has. If you're family and plan on buying books for Sera, take a look and see if she has it already. It's a pretty cool service.

On Thursday, Sera and I met with our friend, Terry. Terry is piecing together Sera's 100 Good Wishes Quilt as her gift to Sera. She is an amazing quilter. She is almost finished the top, so we met on Thursday to find fabric for the border and the back. She took the border with her, but here is a picture of the fabric that will be on the other side of the quilt. It's looking absolutely gorgeous, and I can't wait to show it to you all. What's even more amazing is that she's doing this as a summer project when her daughter is getting married on July 14th! She's having quite the busy summer. We also signed up on a waiting list to get it quilted. The wait is 6-8 weeks for that part.


There is no other word to describe Sera, but as a blessing in our life. We are so incredibly lucky in many ways. One major way is that she's decided she loves her crib. This morning when I went to get her up, this is what I found. She's awake in this picture, but was closing her eyes because of the flash. It took me three tries to get a good picture. Inbetween shots, she'd open her eyes and turn the corners of her mouth up in a smile.

This is what she looked like when I went to get her after her morning nap. She was just playing away. When I asked her if she was ready to get up, she shook her head no and kept playing. It's now Sunday afternoon. About 45 minutes ago, she walked over to me and climbed on my lap. She then looked at me and gave me the sign for go to sleep. She lets us know when she's ready for a nap. She said night-night to daddy, and I brought her upstairs. She's still awake. I've been watching her as I worked on this post. When I laid her in the crib, she stuck her thumb in her mouth, pulled her doll up to her shoulder and smiled at me with sleepy eyes as I started her music, said night-night, and left. Within seconds, I watched her jump up and start playing. Right now, she's sitting on that Tigger with her baby doll laying on the bed facing her. She's babbling away. I think she just wanted to play in her crib. She will play in her crib for a good 30-60 minutes before she finally falls asleep.

I know how incredibly lucky we are that she sleeps so well and that she's so happy in her room. I'm going to go listen to her sing now.

By the way, video monitors rock!