Happy 3rd Birthday to Us!

Dear readers,

Today is our 3rd birthday, and we'd like to celebrate what we've accomplished in our "toddler" years. Three years ago, our blog was "born" on a cold Groundhog's Day at a Panera in Clintonville. As we sit in a Panera again (this time in Hilliard), 3 years later, we realize we've come much farther than just across town. Today, we'd like to celebrate some of our toddler milestones.

We learned to walk.

• We had to learn the ins and outs of blogger and blogger dashboard, and were initially overwhelmed by the technological demands of blogging :) .
• Bill conquered iMovie.
• Karen has been living in the world of PLP this year.

We learned to talk.

• We started with a simple introductory post. (Karen) (Bill)
  
• Bill hosted a Grand Discussion with unintentional results.
• Karen shared her Core Beliefs
• We both have developed our own "voices" over the three years - we have friends that joke that they like to guess which one of us is writing by reading the first sentence or two of the post. :)
• We mostly blog about books we love, but we have used our blog as a vehicle to share about other things as well (family, life events, items of interest in our classroom/library).
  

We learned to share and play with others.

• We started by following 8 - 10 other blogs on our blogroll. Now, we have over 64 blogs listed on our roll and 14 websites we follow. And that doesn't even take into account what lives on our Google Readers!
  
• We went to KidLitCon in 2009, and met some of our blogging friends and mentors face to face.
• Being members of the Twitter community has changed our lives forever. It has linked us to more great thinking and great blogs. It continues to help us grow exponentially.
• We are proud members of the Central Ohio blogging community.
• We are also proud members of the Central Kidlitosphere.
  
• We contribute on occasion to Poetry Friday and Nonfiction Monday (both of which we would like to do more often).
• We try to do our small part in the Kidlitosphere with our Looking for Newbery posts each year.
• Karen had an opportunity to present at NCTE 2009 about how blogging has made her a better reading and writing teacher.
  
• We have both been panelists for the Cybils awards.
  

We learned to say “thank you”.

• We’ll be forever grateful to MaryLee of A Year of Reading for taking the time on a cold February day to meet with us and help us get Literate Lives off the ground.
• We are also thankful for all the other mentor blogs that we read voraciously before we began this endeavor. Thank you for paving the way for us, and welcoming us when we joined the kidlitosphere.
  
• We are SO grateful to everyone who either stops by regularly, or visits on occasion. It is so nice to know that we have an audience with whom we connect.
  
• We are also grateful to all the authors who visit and comment on our blog – without your books, our blog would not exist. It will always be a thrill to see an author’s name in our comments section.

Our toddler years have been a lot of fun here at Literate Lives, and we’ve learned so much along the way. Thanks for being part of our growing years.

Gratefully,
Bill and Karen