Board Books

I was reading some books to the Buddies today (which is how Adam and I usually refer to Théoden and Samuel, rather than "the twins") and realized I kinda wanted to blog about some of them. I'm keeping track of what I read this year and this is a large part of it-- these dozen or so books, over and over and over and over and over.

The boys love to be read to. They love to look at books, hold books, touch books, carry books around with them. They bring books to us, one book after another, for an hour, sometimes. I love it and it's exhausting. The other day, I read a current favorite no less than thirty times in one day-- and any mom of a book-lover will tell you that's pretty normal. I've already been interrupted twice while writing this to read books.

Three times, heh.

So, what exactly are we reading?

Current favorites are:

Brown Bear, Brown Bear by Bill Martin, Jr. and Eric Carle

My First Book of Colors, by Eric Carle

Blue Hat, Green Hat, by Sandra Boynton

Moo, Baa, La La La, by Sandra Boynton

A to Z, by Sandra Boynton

Doggies, by Sandra Boynton

Where's Spot? by Eric Hill

Spot's First Walk, by Eric Hill

Goodnight Moon, by Margaret Wise Brown and Clement Hurd

That's Not My Pirate, by Fiona Watts

Mommy Hugs, by Anne Gutman and Georg Hallensleben

Daddy Kisses, by Anne Gutman and Georg Hallensleben

Colors, by Chadwick Coleman

Where's Spot? lost all of the flaps-- they were all torn out within about a week. Spot's First Walk has fared a bit better, but only because it's kept up on a shelf out of reach. They go to the shelf and point to it when they want to read that one (which, right now, is about every other minute). Even without the flaps, though, Where's Spot? is still a favorite.

Sandra Boynton has a special place in my heart from my own childhood and I'm just happy the boys like her books, too. Blue Hat, Green Hat is a particular favorite of Théoden's, and Samuel used to bring us Doggies several times a day. He still enjoys it, but isn't as insistent about it.

Goodnight Moon didn't catch on until Adam started reading it and pointing out each noun on the page (he'd point to kittens whenever it said, "Goodnight kittens," for example) and now it's really exciting to see them starting to make even more connections. Now, Samuel won't let us past the "The cow jumping over the moon," page unless I also point out, "A cow! A cow says moo!" like it says in Moo, Baa, La La La. If I forget, he turns the page back and points to the cow, insisting, "That? That? That?"

That's Not My Pirate by Fiona Watts is great! The boys also have That's Not My Dinosaur. We had That's Not My Lion, but it was falling apart too much to keep. (Several of our books are now rebound with duct tape, and Lion was one of the few that couldn't be saved.) The That's Not My series is an Usbourne series with textures on each page. They were some of the very first books we read to the boys, when they were too little to even touch the pages on their own. They would get really excited when we helped them feel the textures, though.

The only other books I want to mention more specifically are the books Mommy Hugs and Daddy Kisses. I found these wonderful little books on a Barnes & Noble trip with my mother-in-law and they're favorites of mine. Each page has an animal interacting with their young, i.e. "Mommy penguin hugs her chick with a nibble." We do all the actions as we read and the boys really enjoy it. The Daddy Kisses one also incorporates specific body parts ("on the nose," "on the ear," etc.).

Anyway. That's what else I'm reading right now. I'll probably add some more as we add some to our collection or as other books become more popular with the Buddies. I'm also planning on adding a post about books I want to get for them. That list is pretty darn long. Heh.