This is what a friend told me when my daughter was about two or three months old and I was trying to figure out what to start reading to her. So I’d been given some Peekaboo Baby by Dawn Sirett books at my baby shower and I started with these. My friend was right. Eliza loved looking at the babies, but more importantly, she loved opening the flaps to see the surprise. In our experience, for the first year and half or so, she mostly loved the books that she could participate in. I quickly learned that board books worked best since she ripped anything softer – but not all babies are so rough with their books. Most one-year-old babies seem to love Elmo and I found Elmo’s Big Lift-and-Look Book by Anna Ross when doing a search for Elmo books at this point. She actually still loves this book two years later – I highly recommend it. Each page features different elements (numbers, shapes, letters, etc.) for them to “find” by lifting numerous flaps.
Other books she loved at that point: Where is Baby’s Belly Button by Karen Katz, the Farm Animals book, and Baby Loves (published by the Metropolitan Museum of Art –this is one of my favorites. I bought it at the Mary Cassatt exhibit at the Shelburne Museum in Shelburne, Vermont in the summer or 2008 when I was pregnant with Eliza. This is actually not a board book, but she has managed not to rip the pages. The words are so simple: baby hug, baby cuddles, baby drinks, etc. so she has memorized the words and loves to see babies – even if they’re impressionistic babies!
What we’re reading today (from the baby years): Rockabye Farm
Why: She still loves books that put babies or animals to sleep.
What I’m looking for: books about learning to go potty. I have Big Girls Use the Potty and Princess Potty but neither seems to be sinking in
So... Theo loved the Helen Oxenbury books with the fat babies when he was little (Tickle Tickle, Clap Hands, Say Goodnight, All Fall Down), but he was really little then.
ReplyDeleteI just noticed that Leslie Patricelli has a potty book - we like her other books. We also have Once Upon a Potty (the girl version - picked it up used or something), which is sweet.