Because Babies Grow Up

The other week I was sick with strep throat. I drafted this post then, with the sickness fully on my mind and consuming a lot of my attention. But it turned out that there was a theme that Friday, books to sing, and I couldn’t pass up the chance to share some of our favorites. So I tabled this post for a theme-free week and here you go!

So Few of Me by Peter H. Reynolds

Feeling under the weather helped me realize how much I do, and enjoy doing, on a regular basis. Having lost so much energy, appetite and desire to talk has really changed our patterns the last few days. With that on my mind, I kept thinking of this book my grandma gave me for Christmas. So Few of Me by Peter H. Reynolds is a quick, humorous read. This book is a great reminder to focus on what’s most important and doing our best. Definitely a message I need to hear again and again. Especially with little ones at home, it’s easy to lose sight of how important the things I do with them really are for them, their development and for our relationships.

Sisters by David McPhail

This week I have really been enjoying how sweet the girls are together. {This is becoming true of almost every week now!} One Wednesday I posted pictures of them being adorable and their status as sisters is really taking shape. Sammi loves to talk about Elli as her sister, and how she can help her and teach her. Sometimes it’s bossy, but most of the time it’s sweet to see them play together. And work together to finagle ways to get more juice. So we pulled out a book we got when Elli was born called Sisters by David McPhail. It talks about the ways two sisters are very different and then very alike. Some of the things are true about the girls so it’s easy for them to identify with the characters in the book. My favorite pages say, “Both sisters liked to help bake cookies…and to play in puddles.” That’s my girls to a tee.

Flossing Teeth

The last book I’m sharing today comes from our public library. Sammi found it on a shelf and begged to bring it home. I wasn’t sure how she’d like it, but it’s been much requested. It’s called Flossing Teeth and is part of the Pebbles Plus series on Healthy Teeth. Anna shows us the right way to floss to get food and plaque off our teeth. It shows a diagram of two teeth and where the plaque and food like to hang out where the brush can’t reach them. It also shows how teeth get cavities when they aren’t cared for. This was powerful for Sammi since she had a cavity the first time she went to the dentist for an official visit! She really identifies with this book and it helps her remember to take good care of her teeth so she doesn’t get any more cavities.

Have books to share? Want to find more book recommendations? Check out Feed Me Books Friday hosted by The Adventure of Motherhood.

And please leave a comment telling what book you read to death this week

A year and a half ago Sammi and I took a brave step and read our first chapter book together. I was inspired by Jim Trelease‘s book The Read-Aloud Handbook. I selected Charlotte’s Web because I remembered loving it as a child and it was conveniently unpacked and sitting on our bookshelf. Sammi was 2 years and 3 months old when we started it. We read it every morning at breakfast and we actually finished it. She enjoyed it and so did I.

Since that first success with a chapter book, we haven’t really had much success with any of the other chapter books we already owned. We started a few, but we’d read them here and there and the story line got lost because of our inconsistent reading. Elli has also grown a bit and developed her own opinions about what we read and how long she’ll allow us to read books that are too big for her.

I’ve been feeling like we needed to find some chapter books that we in-between Charlotte’s Web and long picture books. One day at the library Sammi pulled a book off the shelf and brought it to me asking if we could take it home. It was Junie B. Jones Has a Peep in her Pocket. I flipped through it and loved the layout. There are illustrations about every other page, the font is nice and big and it’s divided into chapters. There were six chapters in this book.

It worked out perfectly that we were able to read it for a chapter at a time. Elli could handle that much of the book before interrupting us. It really didn’t take very long to read a chapter. In fact, we’ve read picture books longer than a chapter and some as long as the whole book. But it has a more grown up feel because of the chapters and the layout. The story moveds pretty quickly and Sammi was always interested in rading one more chapter. We picked it up a couple times each day and had it finished in three days.

Sammi enjoyed Junie B. so much that we got two more books in the series. We’re currently reading Junie B., First Grader: Boss of Lunch. Sammi is thrilled with this book, too. At the bookstore where we got it, they had a whole collection of them and I let her pick out two. She seems very pleased with her choice. These books are written in first person from Junie B.’s perspective. It includes typical grammar mistakes of an early elementary school child and a whole lot of spunk in her personality. I often skip over words like stupid and dumb if they are used in a context that Sammi doesn’t know yet (and I don’t want to give her any ideas!). Other than that, it’s a fun read for both of us and we’re excited to be reading chapter books.

We’re definitely hooked on Barbara Park and her Junie B. Jones collection.

Are there any beginning chapter books you’d recommend for us?

Have books to share? Want to find more book recommendations? Check out Feed Me Books Friday hosted by The Adventure of Motherhood.

The links to the books are Amazon Affiliate links. I like to include links to Amazon because they have great prices and a good collection of reviews and additional info. If you happen to make a purchase after clicking on one of my links, I’ll receive a small percentage of that sale.

Don’t miss this week’s giveaway from Baby Cribs Plus (it’s my birthday present to you!) Come celebrate with me!

It’s been an interesting week around here. I went to the doctor on Wednesday and found out I have strep throat. I was pretty miserable Wednesday and then even worse on Thursday. I’m hoping that the medicine will finally start to clear up my throat and that I’ll have a fun weekend.

Today is Arbor Day. If you have a minute, please send a virtual tree through Hanes’ Facebook Page and they’ll plant a real tree for you! A simple way you can help make a big difference.

This week’s theme is books to sing. When we first started reading books with Sammi, the only ones she liked at all were books that had tunes. It was a great introduction to books for her and we had a blast singing.

Hush Little Baby by Brian Pinkney

I grew up to the song Hush Little Baby. My mom sang it to me every night and it’s always been one of my favorites. Brent and I have a hard time singing this together though because I always sing it “Mommy’s gonna buy you…” and he feels funny doing that. So when I found this version of Hush Little Baby in book form I fell in love. It’s all about a day when Mom goes on errands and Daddy is with the brother and baby sister. It’s so cute how the dad tries to make her laugh and forget that Mommy just left. Plus it was one that Brent loved reading/singing with Sammi.

Down by the Bay by Raffi

We have loved our Down by the Bay book to pieces. I really struggled with the tune at first because it was unfamiliar to me. Fortunately it has the music at the end of the book and I was able to plunk it out on the piano till I got the hang of it. The illustrations are great for this crazy song about moose kissing a goose, a whale with a polka-dotted tail and more. I liked this one because it broadened my horizons and taught me a song I should probably have known, but didn’t.

Ten Little Fingers by Annie Kubler

I’d recommend any of the song books illustrated by Annie Kubler and published by Child’s Play. They are so adorable and really bring the song to life. We received Ten Little Fingers as a gift when we were expecting Sammi. This was another one where the tune was unfamiliar to me and I had to practice a lot to get it down. But the actions are great and it’s so much fun to see little ones go from passively listening to the song/book to actively doing the actions and trying to sing the song.

Have books to share? Want to find more book recommendations? Check out Feed Me Books Friday hosted by The Adventure of Motherhood.

These books are linked to Amazon through an affiliate link. I provide the link so you can read additional reviews on the books as well as have easy access to more info about the book. If you happen to buy something through one of these links, I will earn a small percentage of the sale.