“Cherry, cherry, cherry.”

I posted this picture on Facebook this morning:

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I wrote with it that hiding your books in the bathroom vanity was a good idea as well. No one can argue with, “I’m in the bathroom!“ and tagged all four of my brothers. Three of them have responded laughing and two of them have called me a nerd! I am completely comfortable with being a nerd! In fact, I KNOW that I am a nerd!

I got my own room around the time I was 13. My brother asked me one time what I did in my room all the time for so long. I told him, “Read.“ I used to read a Babysitters’ Club book a day in the summer. Going along with that thread, my Mom and I have been doing something for probably the past two or three months.

In the morning, when we begin our routine, my Mom needs to transfer me from my motorized wheelchair to begin our work getting me ready for the day. Each day, my Mom hugs me as I wrap my arms around her neck. She needs to pull me up to a standing position and then lower me down to sitting.

While she does this, we both say, “Up, up, up.” And then after I lock my knees to a standing position, we both say, “Down, down, down.” And as she lets go of me, I always say, “Cherry, cherry, cherry.” Those were some of the first lines from the very first book I “read.” I remember one day, my uncle came over and was not impressed by my, “reading.”

Now, as a forner Reading Specialist, I understand that was the beginning stage of exactly that, READING! I read tons of Word Bird books which ultimately were building up my recognition of site words and my own automaticity when it came to reading!

Go Mom! That Word Bird book was the building block of my love for reading. I have always read tons and still do! (as much as my vision will allow me to) I was reading the other day when Sean got home from school. He told me that it was good that I liked reading so much. I appreciated him saying that because it helped me put things into perspective because that’s pretty much all I can do now!

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My Mom kind of chuckles every time I say, “Cherry, cherry, cherry.” I have so much to thank that little blue bird for! So much more than I knew back then, I appreciate that I can get lost in a book while sitting in my wheelchair and not being able to leave my house.