To - Do - Go - See - Mekonis

What does it all mean, you ask? It means - - - my daughter actually read to me tonight. For the first time she actually sounded out words and read them to me from a book. We were reading a book called "Little One Little One What Do You See", which is a book that I had created for her so her name is strewn throughout the book. On the opening page it says that the book was made for "Laina Nicole Mekonis". So she read Laina because she knows that one. Then I helped her sound out Nicole and then on her own, she sounded out Mekonis. So from there I decided to give it a whirl with simpler words. We sound out words all the time, but tonight it was just different. You could literally see the gears churning and tell how hard her brain was working to process the sounds and put them together to make an actual word. It was incredible. You could just see it in her eyes, when it clicked and she got a word - she was bursting with pride - and so of course was I (followed promptly by tears welling up in my eyes). I have been so curious, for so long how children actually learn to read - - and tonight I witnessed it. It was truly awesome! Way to go Laina!