Wednesday 8 May 2013

Books, lately.

I haven't posted Mila's newest batch of favorite books in awhile and yet reading is a huge part of our every day at home. She's at this awesome stage where she'll "read" for literally, hours--after hearing the book a few times she'll recite phrases verbatim, which is why today I was nursing Dani in the living room and could hear Mila exclaiming from her bedroom, "TO THE TEE (tree)! TO THE TEE!" She was reading Go Dog, Go! She even does two different voices for the do you like my hat? bit between the male and female dogs. 

For awhile Mila would say no when we'd to read to her. Or rather, me do it meself or ME want to read it! But now she's finally starting to let us read again. Or she'll come up to me and say, "Mama do you want to read with me?" which obviously melts me into a puddle and together we'll sit and read. Sometimes with a drooling droolbug of a Dani in my lap (who's actually much more engaged in books than Mila was at her age so I'm crazy excited about that) and sometimes it's just us. Or sometimes I can hear Steve reading to her and I know that's where she assimilates her theatrics from. Or I'll hear my mom reading the same book to her over and over again from the next room per Mila's request. It's all good.

So without further ado, her favorites, at two and three-quarters:

  • Go Dog, Go! There's just something about this classic.
  • Any book about using the potty (and we have many; my favorite is Time to Pee by Mo Willems. Charming!). Unfortunately this hasn't translated into her actually going to the potty.
  • Have You Filled a Bucket Today? I can't say enough good things about this book. I bought it thinking it was light years beyond Mila's grasp of emotional understanding but no, it's perfect and will only keep getting more perfect as she gets older. Explaining compassion in terms of filling and emptying someone's bucket is just the sort of concrete image littles need to facilitate empathy. Highly, highly recommend, even for toddlers. And that way if you see us in public telling Mila not to be a bucket dipper, you'll understand. 
  • We're Going on a Bear Hunt. The secret to house hunting with my toddler? Tell her we're going on a bear hunt. It makes everything infinitely more exciting and suddenly you're in the middle of an adventure. The other day we went puddle stomping (more like wading, it had poured buckets) and suddenly Mila belts out, Uh oh! A river! A dark cold river! We can't go over it...it was one of my happiest mama moments yet.
  •  Any and all ABC books. I'm working on teaching Mila letters and now she can proudly identify 19-20 (C is iffy!) of them. We keep our stash of ABC books together in one place--and oh yes, Chicka Chicka Boom Boom counts--to help with cross-referencing. Ha. 
  • I Want My Hat Back. Just get it. It's hilarious. Yes you must do voices for the different animals.Mila does after hearing ours enough times...and they're wonderful. Chin-scrunched- into-her-neck-and-voice-all-nasal wonderful.
  • And random: I read Mila poetry a few times last month and seeing the book jacket she thought that Shel Silverstein bears a resemblance to Steve. Good one, Wugs.  


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