Ask me to recite just about any Dr. Seuss book (or Fancy Nancy, or Eric Carle) and I’ll probably be able to do it from memory. Do you want to know the lyrics to a Veggie Tales song? How about the Imagination Movers? It’s all stored in my head, and I don’t think it’s ever going to get purged.

Once my kids find something they like, whether it’s a certain book, song or movie, they never seem to grow tired of it. I know this is fairly common among babies and children, and I also know that it helps the kids learn. I get it, but that doesn’t mean I have to like it.

I’ve been reading the same Diego book every night for the past couple of weeks. The suspense as to whether Diego will indeed save the baby sea turtles has long since been lost on me, but every time we read it my kids sit in hushed anticipation to find out what happens next. I’ve also had They Might Be Giants: 123 in my car’s CD player for a straight week now, and any time I change it I get a stern tongue-lashing from my kids in the back seat who want their music back.

I keep reading Diego and keep listening to They Might Be Giants in the car because I know that the kids love them. I also know that it won’t be long before they get passionate about a different book or CD, and although we’ll undoubtedly read the book over and over and listen to the CD over and over, it will also pass someday soon.

Besides, every so often I do manage to talk them into trying something different and they actually take to it. They were initially iffy about the Olivia books but now they love them, and I saw some scowls when I first slipped a swing CD into the stereo at home but now they dance like crazy when I turn the music on while I cook.

Repetition is a necessary evil, I’m afraid, but it could be a lot worse. At least my kids pick music I enjoy and books that are clever. I don’t know what I would do if their music of choice was something horrible and I was stuck in the car along with two kids who like singing along with vigor.

I’ve been reading to my daughter since a few days after she was born. I even packed a few picture books in my hospital bag, but we were too busy trying to get the breastfeeding thing working that I didn’t read to her in the hospital.

Just the other night, my 15-week old daughter realized that the stories I’ve been reading to her come from books. She noticed that there are neat, colorful pictures to go with the words. I first caught her looking at the pages when I read the classic bedtime story, Goodnight Moon.

Bibliophile that I am, this milestone was even more significant to me than when she rolled over for the first time. I was so intrigued by her reaction to the connection between the pictures and the words that I read her four bedtime stories that night!

Now, as I read her the same stories I’ve been reading to her for four months, she is seeing them for the first time. And it makes story time so much more fun for both of us.

So, I’d like to share with Babies Online readers a list of my daughter’s favorite picture books. The criteria? She likes short, snappy sentences with not too many words per page. She seems to prefer animal characters, and a story where I can really put some enthusiasm into the lines, meaning they are fun for me to read, too!

And yes, I can tell her favorites already by her reactions and how long the story will keep her attention. Maybe I’m raising a book review blogger!

1. Goodnight Moon – This classic by Margaret Wise Brown is the perfect bedtime book, and because it was the first book my daughter “noticed,” it goes first on our list. It’s got a great rhythm and simple pictures that hold a child’s attention—even an infant’s. By the time I am whispering “Goodnight noises everywhere,” my daughter knows it’s time to go to sleep.

2. The Foot Book – This interactive story by Dr. Seuss is shorter than many other Seuss books, making it perfect for infants and young readers alike. My daughter loves when I grab her foot to show her “left foot, right foot.” The cats don’t like it so much when I use their paws to demonstrate “fuzzy fur feet.” Best of all, you can get two free Dr. Seuss books, and a tote bag, right here through Babies Online’s special offer.

3. If You Give a Mouse a Cookie – Author Laura Numeroff has an entire series of “If You Give…” books, and each one is a great addition to any children’s library. The adorable mouse, cat, pig and moose characters endear Mom and baby alike. With one fun sentence per page and great illustrations filled with details, these books just don’t get old, even after the hundredth or so reading. Watching the smile on my daughter’s face when I ask her, “What happens next…?” simply melts my heart. I’m sure when she’s older she’ll begin to narrate the books along with me.

4. The Hat – I’ve always been a Jan Brett fan, and The Hat is one of my favorites. It’s a lot of fun to read, and the ironic ending will make adults chuckle. Brett’s detail-rich illustrations bring every page to life, and the plot progresses with just enough repetition that children love it but parents won’t find it tedious.

5. The Monster at the End of this Book – Originally published in 1971, The Monster at the End of this Book (starring lovable furry old Grover) was one of my childhood favorites. When I found a beat-up copy at a garage sale while I was pregnant, I pounced. Then my aunt bought Ashley her own, brand-new copy, and I can’t think of a more perfect gift. This title is fun to read with enthusiasm and always makes my daughter giggle. Yes, we all know Grover IS the monster at the end of the book, but that doesn’t make it any less suspenseful for little ones.

There are so many other great books available to foster a love of reading for your child, this list is just a very small sampling. I know I’ve left out many notable authors, including Karen Katz and Eric Carle.

Really, there’s no excuse not to read at least one book a day to your child. When your baby gets to the “grabby” stage, sturdy board books are a great investment and are priced lower than their hard cover counterparts.

Readers, what are you favorite children’s books? Please share!

I found a wonderful little book for my baby today: Haiku Baby by Betsy Snyder. Each poem is short (haikus have 3 lines, 5 syllables each) and is about nature. Each one inspires emotion and even action when you read to your little one. When I read rain to my eight month old, he loved my exaggerated voice and gestures.

It reads:

“Splish splash, puddle bath!
Raindrops march in spring parade.
Wake up, sleepy earth”

For the first line, I “splashed around”, during the second I marched and during the third I yawned and stretched like I was trying to wake up.

Each haiku is equally engaging. It’s amazing how there can be so much in three short verses! The colorful pictures caught my baby’s attention and the big tabs on the sides encourage baby to turn the pages.

I found this little treasure at my local bookshop, an absolutely amazing place located in the oldest building in town. I can spend hours in there, hunting for unusual and interesting books, journals and other gift items. I’m so glad I went in and found this book for my little one. The kids’ section is full of books which I have never seen at larger chain bookstores.

Another thing that came from this trip is that I was reminded that even during tough economic times (and maybe especially then), small, local businesses need our support, even if it is just to buy a little book for baby.

There is also a haiku baby website which has some very cute nature sounds and other cute features. (I looked it up as soon as I finished reading the book.) You can order the book from Amazon. I recommend it!

When I had my daughter last October, it was the first time I’d been around a baby in nearly two decades.

While I did a lot of research on pregnancy and childbirth my nine months of pregnancy, for some reason I was so caught up in the adventure of “having” a baby that I didn’t think about what it would be like to raise a baby. Just as I turned to pregnancy books before my little one was born, I turned to parenting books in the first few weeks after her birth.

Here is a short list of the titles I would recommend, buy for close friends and keep on my bookshelf for years to come.

1. What to Expect the First Year by Heidi Murkoff – Just like What to Expect When You’re Expecting, this conversational tome is comprehensive and well-organized. While the authors recommend and rely on pediatrician’s advice more often than my personal philosophies would prefer, the book literally covers every topic a new parent could need. I turn to the book each month to see how my daughter is doing regarding milestones, and frequently throughout the month for parenting tips and tricks. I plan to build the entire library of “What to Expect” titles in the coming years.
2. No-Cry Sleep Solution by Elizabeth Pantley– This practical book outlines a gentle, effective way to start your newborn on the path of sleeping through the night. Didn’t start early? The book also offers techniques to help infants over four months old to begin falling asleep on their own and sleeping through the night. Pantley is not against co-sleeping, but does offer tips for parents who want to break that cycle of having the baby in bed with them. The book also addresses the psychological factors behind night-time feedings, asking mothers to decide if they are ready, emotionally, for their baby to sleep through the night or if they’re still craving that late-night, quiet contact.

 

3. How to Raise a Healthy Child in Spite of your Doctor by Robert Mendelsohn – For those looking for an alternative medicine/natural health approach to child-rearing, this book provides practical advice and solutions. Mendelsohn asserts that there’s rarely a reason to involve your pediatrician and gives you the knowledge to diagnose and treat many common ailments. I’ll be referring to this book in many instances before I call my baby’s doctor.

 

4. Anything by Dr. Sears – The “Dr. Spock” of our generation, Dr. Sear’s volumes are comprehensive, informative and authoritative. He advocates attachment parenting, but also teaches balance in the family and a common sense approach to parenting. As the father of eight children, including noted author and pediatrician Dr. Robert Sears, his advice can be trusted.

 

5. The Nursery Collections – or any other comprehensive volume of children’s nursery rhymes and short stories. I know the first time I was faced with singing a classic like “The Wheels on the Bus” to my daughter, I completely blanked on the words. While my sister assured me the baby doesn’t care if I’m singing the right lyrics or even in tune, it bothered me! A collection of rhymes and songs will save your sanity and give you a constant arsenal of baby entertainment.

 

6. Dr. Seuss Books – For a limited time you can receive TWO FREE Dr Seuss books and a FREE TOTE BAG from Babies Online. You can find more baby freebies right here at Babies Online including free baby & parenting magazine offers and more!

Readers, what are your favorite parenting titles?

I don’t know if it’s global warming, but we are still playing outside and it’s November. The weather seems to be planning to return to it’s regularly scheduled broadcast, and there’s snow for later this week. So as is much more normal for this time of year, it’s time to find inside activities for my son.

We’ve been visiting the library since he was a baby. When he was a tiny baby, he loved to sit on my lap during the story time. I was always nervous of borrowing books for a little baby, knowing they had been chewed and drooled on by many many other babies and that board books don’t get cleaned. But now he’s older and into everything, germs and all, I’m not as worried about dirt, and we take home a heap of books almost every week.

I don’t know if it’s because I’ve been reading to him almost since he was born, but he’s always loved books. Typically for a toddler, he’ll want to read one book 32 times in a row then be bored of it. So the library is perfect source of ever-new books.

And even returning the books is fun, he loves to post the books into the chute to return them.

Today, as well as a pile of picture books, I checked out a heap of the latest CDs for me, and optimistically, a couple of books which I admit, I won’t find the time to read, but I’m an optimist!

Benefits for mom, for baby, educational and all free. I love the library!

Recently I was at the library with my older children and noticed that they were offering an infant story time program. The infant program was geared, according to the flyer, for infants up to 18 months of age.

I have to admit that I never took my older children to a story time program until they were about three years of age, but my son is such a social child and loves activity! I decided to try it.

Today, he went to his very first story time session. For most of the half hour session, he sat on my lap and truly wasn’t very interested in the story other than for a few seconds. What did interest him was all the other children! He spent a lot of time just watching them. During the music time, he shook his rattle and screamed with delight. He put the paper bear cutouts in his mouth instead of putting them on the paper during the craft time, but I expected as much.

He played in the toy area alongside of a few of the children who attended the story time session and smiled at some of the parents. He chewed on some of the books which seemed to make him very happy.

After story time, we rode the elevator a few times as he loves elevators and pressing buttons. He cried when it was time to go home which surprised me.

I have to admit, I had my doubts about taking a child so young to an organized activity at the library. After seeing how much he really enjoyed the whole experience, I believe that we’ll be attending every week so he can socialize with his peers. Well, socialize as much as a child of his age is able to socialize anyway. I also got to meet and mingle with some of the parents who attended with their children. That’s definitely an added bonus.

Of course, one of the best parts about the story time program? It’s free.

If you are looking for educational outing opportunities for your child, I’d encourage you to check out your local library to see if they offer such programs. I am glad that I did!

All of my children have had “security blankets”: that favorite blanket they absolutely can’t live without or get to sleep without.

My third daughter loved her “blankie” so much that she gave it a name. She carried it everywhere for years until it was threadbare and worn. After several years, I discovered that “blankie” would no longer come clean in the wash (that’s if I could sneak him away while my daughter was asleep) and that he had begun to unravel. I continued to patch and spot clean as best I could.

I searched high and low for another “blankie”, but alas, that particular style of blanket was not available. I bought many blankets with similar styles, fabric and color, but my child refused to accept the replacement blankie.

I learned a few things from this which I will gladly pass on to other parents! Firstly, if your child has a special blanket or toy that she seems to prefer, it’s best to go out and purchase at least one “backup” in the same style or pattern while that particular item is still stocked.

For example, my infant son has a favorite blanket which is blue and has a sating border around it. I went out and bought several blue blankets with satin trim when I noticed that he began to want that particular blanket at night when he was going to sleep.

I now have several spare blankets in case his favorite one needs to get washed or-gasp-gets lost or ruined. Today, my son has a stomach virus and he asked for his favorite blankie(in baby talk of course). I was glad that I had the spare blanket when he got sick this morning right before his nap. His blanket got the brunt of the episode, but no worries. I simply handed him the spare and washed the other blanket while he is napping.

When the day finally comes for your child to transition to a blanket free world, I would recommend the book Owen by Kevin Henkes. This wonderful children’s book was the reason my older daughter decided to give up her blanket so many years ago. Her blanket is now stored in a trunk I keep at the foot of my bed, with all of my children’s baby books and keepsakes.

As for my son, he is still young. The day will come when he will give up his blanket, but for now, his blanket is another source of security in a big world he’s just starting to explore.

Sometimes I feel vastly under-qualified to blog about pregnancy, childbirth and parenting. After all, this is my first child and I’m learning as I go. I can only hope, as you read my posts, that you’ll be learning along with me, that my questions and concerns mirror those of other first-time expectant mothers.

As an avid reader, freelance writer, and former bookstore employee, one thing I do know is books! There are several titles I’ve added to my already-overstuffed bookshelves in the past few months that I now consider indispensable titles for an expectant mom.

Here they are, in no particular order. I hope they help you, too.

• What to Expect When You’re Expecting – This definitive pregnancy title by Heidi Murkoff is available in a newly-revised fourth edition for 2008. Amazon.com calls the book ‘America’s Pregnancy bibles’ and USA Today voted it one of the 25 most influential books of the past 25 years. It’s been read by 90 percent of all pregnancy women who read any pregnancy books, so if this isn’t your first child, chances are you have a copy. However, the updated edition reflects the latest research, changing attitudes and current lifestyle trends, so it may be time to update your dog-eared copy. If this is your first baby, you will read this book cover-to-cover and refer to it often.
• Baby Bargains – When I first got engaged, Bridal Bargains was one of a handful (okay, more like a box-full!) of wedding books I purchased. I later passed it on to a friend, and still consider it one of my best wedding investments. Therefore, it made sense to pick up Baby Bargains when we first began shopping for our little bean. In this informative, straightforward and fun-to-read volume, not only do authors Denise and Alan Fields offer a realistic assessment of the price of having a baby, they show you how to save hundreds or thousands of dollars. Most appealing is the money back guarantee, if you don’t save at least $250 on baby products by using the book, the authors will refund the cost of the book. I’m sure I’ll use this book a lot in the coming months and then pass it on, as well!
• What to Expect the First Year – As Week 40 approaches, an expectant mother’s worries begin to shift from what’s going on inside her body to how she will care for the new baby. What to Expect the First Year, by Heidi Murkoff, will answer many of your questions and concerns before you find them staring you in the face. The chapters on fatherhood are great, too! (Alternatively, Babies Online has great section on Baby’s First Year, a week by week breakdown of expectations and baby development, and it’s totally FREE)
• A Child is Born – I remember browsing through this book as I stocked the Pregnancy and Parenting section of Barnes & Noble, years before I dreamed of having a child of my own. The gorgeous photography by Lennart Nilsson is moving and informative. Like What to Expect, this 40-year-old classic volume was recently updated to reflect new advancements and updated research. More than 350 new photographs, including photos created using new 3D ultrasound technology, bring the miracle of childbirth to life.
• Best Baby Gear -This new book by Sandy and Marcie Jones came to me straight from Sterling Publishing. I opened it with the skepticism required of a book reviewer. I already have Baby Bargains and Consumer Reports: Best Baby Productswhat additional information could this book provide? After a night of perusing the 369-page resource, which is part of the Great Expectations series, I was pleasantly surprised by the in-depth information, easy-to-read format, and full color images of many popular baby products. The book also goes beyond the products to provide ‘quick tips’ for tasks such as bathing an infant or changing a diaper. This one will stay in my bag with me when I go shopping for everything from a breast pump to a stroller. (Note: You’ll have to wait ’till August to pick up this one… the book has not been released yet.)

There are many other books you may want to add to your collection, depending on your own level of knowledge and reading preferences. A baby name book might be a good purchase, but, honestly, I’d save my money and use the many online resources devoted to baby names and their meanings.

You may want a pregnancy journal. I picked one up through Freecycle. The previous owner never wrote on a single page. I’ve had it three weeks and in spite of lugging it to my OB for my most recent appointment, I haven’t used it, yet, either.

On the other hand, you may revel in chronicling every moment of your pregnancy and writing down every milestone, in which case a pretty pregnancy journal is a great keepsake. For me, a pocket calendar to keep track of doctor appointments and a notepad to jot down questions for my doctor works just fine.

How about you? What pregnancy and parenting titles do you consider “must-reads” and why? I’d love to see other expectant and new moms’ “top five” book lists, too, as well as your top five picks for babies. Because, you know, I see a little tiny corner of empty space on my bookshelf, and we can’t have that, can we?

Call me shallow, but before I got pregnant I wanted a baby, but really I wanted a girl. I wanted to buy her pink dresses, and Barbie dolls, take her shopping and braid her hair.

I’m a girl, I understand girls, my whole family was female, except my Dad who was good-natured and totally outnumbered, we even had girl cats and girl rabbits. I didn’t get boys. Boys are those weird, smelly, alien creatures who tortured worms in science lab at school. My husband, well he’s an exception, and anyway he’s a man, not a boy.

Before becoming pregnant, I have ideas of following the old wives’ tales of a “girl diet” and as it turns out, scientists recently suggested there’s something to that. But once I don’t get my birth control prescription refilled, before I know it, a pregnancy test turns positive. We are ecstatic, but now I have to confront the fact that this might well be a boy.

What made the difference for me was a book a friend recommended. It’s called It’s A Boy! Women Writers on Raising Sons. (There’s an “It’s a Girl” too, if you are the opposite of me.) Reading the mother’s stories made me laugh, cry, relax, worry, panic, and ultimately accept that sons are different, but every bit as good as daughters.

I’m glad I accepted my potential son early in my pregnancy, I think that I enjoyed being pregnant much more once I had made peace with whatever gender the baby was.

And by the time of the 20-week ultrasound I was convinced the baby was a boy. I was right – my ultrasound technician confirmed that she had seen a boy part, as she put it. But more importantly, she saw the kidneys, head, heart, and limbs of a healthy baby.

It’s a cliche. But cliches are true – It took me a while, but I realised that I really, truly didn’t care if we were getting a boy or a girl, as long as the baby was healthy. And I’m grateful beyond belief to say our beautiful, perfect, wonderful, adored son is healthy.