Books for a Little Girl

She is always pulling books off the shelf and looking through them.

I can leave her in the crib with a stack of books and she will be content for ages reading to her dollies.

Her favorite books are the Eric Carle books.

Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You See?

Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What Do You Hear?

Her other favorite is a recently acquired copy of Corduroy, the lovable bear with the missing button. She does not sit still for me to read the story. She staggers up to under the weight of the giant board book, ready to turn the pages and babble out a tale on my lap.

I wish I knew the story she has so imaginatively created.

This is some of the books our family received for Christmas.

And with a gift card I bought the If You Give a Mouse a Cookie bookset from Costco, along with a copy of The Wizard of Oz. When I went to pay for it Saoirse was busy turning the pages, babbling away, much to the delight of the older folks in line behind us. The saga of voracious readers and library aficionados continues...

Boyish Fancy

Ethan really enjoys books. One of the most delightful moments of shopping came as we approached the book section of Costco and he yelled, "Boooooks!" and reached way over the side of the cart toward the glossy covers. But he can be rather specific about his story choices. So here are some of his favorites:

 

 

He is decidedly boy in his book tastes. Steam engines, trucks, rockets, fire trucks, and tractors make up the bulk of his reading. Animal noises and counting books are also considered fun reads.

And I am a fan of Little Golden Books. I think they look nice on the shelf and also hold appeal to young children. So I hope to accumulate a fair amount.

It is good to see my son enjoy books. He even enjoys a children's encyclopedia, the pages with airplane diagrams, rocket launches, and ships full sail are his favorite. All I have to do is make up a story about Captain Ethan (Cap'n Me) and he is very content.

 

Of course, his first choice is to play outside. Always.

 

Building Your Vocabulary: A Thesaurus

I wrote my first poem when I was nine. It was a standard, and very simple, rhyme about the moon. I still have it, and it inspires me, a lot actually. As I continued to write poems my big challenge was always finding new ways to describe the familiar. Enter the Merriam-Webster Thesaurus.

This is my favorite tool for finding new words to fit within my poetry. Rhyming dictionaries are nice, but using a thesaurus helps me take an idea from one word and find a dozen new words that enhance it. A dictionary is good for learning a few new words. A thesaurus helps elevate your vocabulary starting with words you already know. Say you want to describe something as pretty. Your options are: beautiful, charming, cute, elegant, graceful, handsome, pleasant, appealing, comely, dainty, darling, delicate, foxy, tasteful, and pulchritudinous. Words are powerful; those who know how to use the power of words have greater opportunity to influence the world around them. What tools do you use for building your vocabulary?

Visit thesaurus.com to learn more words each day.

Toys

Fighting pirates

There is a task I sorta hate,
    And also kinda love.
        I do it when it's really late
           With many sighs and shrugs.
Sometimes it feels like clutter
   Involved in procreation.
      I want to take a giant tractor
          To the toy-weed infestation.
Then I find the Duplo boat
    That he so proudly showed me,
        So maybe it did not quite float;
            It still made our day happy.
There tucked into a random corner
     The doll she loves so much.
          The yarn eyes scold the scorner
               My inner neat freak who would fuss.
The cars and trains under my table
     Have given me a banged-up head,
         My back aches from being unable
              To reach for books behind the bed.
But in the brightly colored clash
    Of teddy bears and dinosaurs
         I see the smiles and feet that dance.
             These toys bring joy to all our hearts.

~Caitlin Mallery

Visit here to read more stories of mothers in the trenches.