Charlotte's Web

Natalie and I have been reading Charlotte's web to each other during our bedtime reading for the past few weeks. We picked it up at the library. I told her it was one of my favorite stories and that I wanted us to read the whole book together. Now that she is such a voracious reader, we haven't read an entire book together for awhile. It's usually a chapter here or there at bedtime, but then she reads the rest on her own.

It was a great experience and she loved the story. We dug out Wilbur, whom my mom had given her a year ago and now he is more beloved than ever, taking the prized sleeping place by her side (along with Cow, who never gets fully bumped). We finished the book a few days ago. So I got the movie and we watched it together today with Katherine.

There is nothing like looking over and seeing your daughters eyes filled with laughter and joy during the movie, then tears when Charlotte dies. I was a little worried how that would go over, she wasn't too affected by the event in the book, but in a movie, right in your face, it's hard to miss the meaning. She cried and snuggled up close and sad it was so sad. And at that moment, I felt her truly as part of me, and my mom... emotional through and through. I have vivid memories of my mom sobbing at movies in the theater when I was a girl, back then I used to get a little embarrassed, but I am the same way and now look back so fondly of those memories. And to witness Natalie, my little emotional, beautiful girl with the same traits, makes me happy in a way I cannot describe.