Saturday was cold, cold, cold. The girls did some painting to keep themselves occupied while stuck in the house.
Christmas is long over; but Holy Mary still comes to visit with Baby Jesus. Here is the baby in a pipe cleaner manger. And Holy Mary wrapped in a very warm quilted mantle.
Sunday was much warmer so after Mass the girls went outside for a bit. I looked up from my pancakes and sausage to see Sophie attempting to pull Bella in the sled. I whooped and jumped for my camera.
Not that Bella had much better luck pulling Sophia.
I think this photo exemplifies the dynamic in their relationship quite well. Sophie just content to sit and wait. Bella runs off to do something else.
Waiting. Stoic Sophie.
Dom took advantage of the (relatively) nice weather to fetch some boxes of baby clothes out of the shed for me. I found Raggedy Ann in one of them. Last week Sophie had us tearing the house apart looking for her. And there she was. How she got there I’m not sure. But that bin has been in the shed since before Christmas.
Sophie was so very happy to see her.
Well, you’ll have to trust me on that. The light in her eyes when she first saw her precious dolly was priceless. This stony face. That’s just… Sophie.
Note the stick sticking out of Sophie’s boot. How she managed that, I’m not sure.
I have a boy and he always liked the Bright Baby and Priddy Baby books …. Trucks, Animals, My First 100 machines, My Big Truck Book, etc. But the ALL TIME FAVORITE, even now that we read some of the longer picture books is Good Night, Gorilla by Peggy Rathman [?]. He likes the fact that the moon and balloon are on every page, he likes to find unusual things in the animal cages, he likes finding the people in the windows of the houses, etc. We read it so much that I hid it in a drawer [knowing he’d find it eventually] and finally I just took it off his shelves and put it in the basement [where my library is located] and I only read it there. All of these books have basically one or two words per page if that.
These are just off the top of my head. I’ll look through my shelves tomorrow and come up with more, to be sure.
Barnyard Dance ~ Sandra Boynton
Jamberry ~ Bruce Degan
Goodnight Moon ~ Margaret Wise Brown
I Can, I Work, I Touch, I See, I Hear, all by Helen Oxenbury
Babies ~ Gyo Fujikawa
Good Dog Carl ~ Alexandra Day
Cyndy Szekeres’ Colors
These have been long time favorites at our house, some for at least 16 years. I haven’t read much yet to my Melanie, at least not these books, so I think I’ll round them up in the morning and start sharing these with her!
Interesting topic. My daughter was a big fan of books from 3 months on. My son was not. He is 5 years old and still enjoys board books. We read picture books as well, but he has been slower to graduate so to speak.
We love the Trucks board book (got it at Target) that has little sliding pieces that reveal truck pictures that are matched to the left side trucks.
Where is God? – Joni Oeltjenbruns
Goodnight Moon – Margaret Wise Brown
Big Red Barn – M. W. Brown
Time for Bed – Fox
The Wheels on the Bus – Jerry Smath
Pajama Time – Sandra Boynton
Blue Hat, Green Hat- S. Boynton
Snuggle Puppy- S. Boynton
Peek-a-Who? – Nina Laden
The Going to Bed Book – S. Boynton
Counting Kisses – Karen Katz
Waddle – Rufus Butler Seder
DK My First Animal Board Book
Some of our favorites have already been mentioned – Eric Carles’ Will You Be My Friend and Have you Seen My Cat seemed to generate lots of conversation. I still love reading Mary’s Happy Christmas Day even when it’s not Christmas; I don’t love reading the Happy Baby books with photos of animals and babies, but my kids loved looking at them and another little book with real babies. The Carrot Seed, Prayer for a Child, The Runaway Bunny, Isn’t God Great which has little windows, and a couple Jan Brett books we first had as board books were other favorites. Since I bought a most of our picture books at thrift stores and library sales, I can’t remember when we didn’t read paper books, but your comment about not being afraid to use tape is true!
Arwen, Oops, I feel foolish. I’m sorry I misunderstood.
I do understand though about not conveying what the complex reality is. From what I’ve written here it may sound like Bella doesn’t read board books anymore. But of course she does still want to read old favorites occasionally. And she often makes a beeline to the board book shelves at the library. One of her recent favorites from the library was a board book called Sheila Rae’s Peppermint Stick. Both girls loved it. (Me, not as much since the big sister taunted the little one—not behavior I’d like to see emulated!)
I’d like to be clear that I don’t think there is some upper age limit to board books. Kids can and should continue to enjoy them as long as they want. And I don’t think they should ever be discouraged from reading board books as in being told they are ‘baby books.’ After all, I still enjoy reading them!
Melanie, it’s funny how sometimes things we write don’t quite relay the reality of the situation, isn’t it? My F&F post wasn’t intended to mean that Camilla is just now switching to picture books, but I guess it did come across that way! Although she still likes to read her old board books (now “Blaisey’s books” by her telling), she’s pretty much completely into picture books, and has been since… well, I can’t exactly remember when, but somewhere in the middle of 2008? So around 18 months, I guess.
I love Sandra Boynton for board books, and also Eric Carle, and Ezra Jack Keats, and Margaret Wise Brown. I guess this stuff is classic for a reason, huh? I’m gonna look for those Julie Merberg books – they sound great!
Looking forward to more posts about books!
I have enjoyed reading this post. With 11 children they have all varied in switching to picture books and some have ‘needed’ to stay on board boooks for longer.
Our favourite with our current baby is Goodnight Moon and Time for Bed.
I am a huge picture book fan and love being able to share these with the children. It is a weakness I have when shopping.
Thank you for sharing
God Bless
These are wonderful suggestions! We’re mostly into all picture books for both girls now, but the board books will never get old, I think. Big Red Barn is one of our favorites too, as well as Brown Bear, Brown Bear and a few nursery rhyme compliations. I love the thought you put into this (and I love all the pictures with BOOKS scattered everywhere!).
I recently noticed that Elizabeth Foss has a post up about her sweet little Sarah Annie’s current favorite board books. Looks like some good ones.