Isn’t he a heartthrob? Shane Bradford, my little sister’s first child, was born on October 8, 2008, weighing in at 8 lbs 4.6 ounces, and 22 inches long.
We can’t wait to meet him in person! Unfortunately, it’s going to be a while before the cousins can get together. With one sister in California, another in New York, and the rest in Florida, family reunions are rare occasions.
In the meantime, I’m putting together a gift basket of our favorite read aloud baby books. These are books that we truly loved reading over and over again. Hopefully, it won’t be too long before I can start sharing them with my youngest nephew:
Moo Baa La La La is one of several books by Sandra Boynton that are just plain old fun to read. We started reading it nightly when Kayla was just a few weeks old, and by the time she was a toddler she was singing along to this and our other favorite Boynton books, Barnyard Dance and But Not The Hippopotamus.
Pat The Bunny, by Dorothy Kunhardt, is the sweet, classic baby book that was loved to death by my first child, and had to be replaced for the second. By then, we also received a copy of Pat The Puppy that somehow seemed more appropriate in our household.
Babies and parents, we all got a kick out of Alexandra Day’s Good Dog, Carl and the notion that a Rottweiler could do the babysitting.
We kept hoping that our Labrador would take on the diaper duty, but he was never as “helpful” as Carl.
Is Your Mama A Llama - It’s the rhymes that had my little ones asking for this one again and again, but it’s the sweet ending that made me want to share it with them.
Jamberry - by Bruce Degen. It’s a silly story about a boy and a bear searching for berries, but I always end up smiling and tapping my feet as I read it.
A Few More Favorite Board Books:
The Very Hungry Caterpillar - by Eric Carle
Sheep In A Jeep - by Nancy E. Shaw
Good Night, Gorilla - by Peggy Rathmann
Good Night Moon - by Margaret Wise Brown
Guess How Much I Love You - by Sam McBratney
Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You See? - By Bill Martin Jr.
More cousin blog posts:
Introducing… - The cousins. Four sisters, living in three states, trying to keep the cousins in touch.
Kissin’ Cousins - Danielle and Isabella at Dana Point, CA.
Homeschooling In Chaos - Homeschooling the cousins on vacation.
Easter Hats - The cousins list gets a little longer when you include second cousins (my cousin’s kids): Atticus and Audrey.
Who is the typical American family? - And, when you include the children of friends who are like sisters, well, I can’t include them all today but here are Joshua and Jamie!
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My son is 7 and my daughter 4 and they STILL sing along with Snoozers (another Boynton book) - your list is magical!
I was afraid Goodnight Moon wasn’t going to make your list. It’s my favorite children’s book, and the board book version is one of my favorite baby gifts to give.
congrats and great list. thanks for sharing. i was just tweeting about books for baby.
What a cutie pie! Thanks for the list… I’ve only heard of a few of these books, but my kidling’s getting to the age where he’s starting to really love books, so this list came at the perfect time.
we love fireman small books - they are awesome! great list! AND, wonderful photos.
How could I leave Good Night Moon off the list? It has a special place in our hearts!
I love the Sandra Boynton books and when my older daughter was little, we read Goodnight Gorilla over and over again.
Thanks for the great list! My toddler has always LOVED books. We read most of these over and over and over again…but I see a couple more that we will definitely check out!
Few more:
No Matter What, by Debi Gliori
Silly Sally, by Audrey Wood
Bear Snores On, by Karma Wilson (the entire series is wonderful)
Even though my daughter is nine, on occasion we still curl up on the couch with picture books – now I can fully appreciate what my Mom meant when she would say, “you’ll always be my baby…”
Some of our very favorites when our son was a baby were Barnyard Dance and Pajama Time by Sandra Boynton, and the One Baby Books (there are 4 including Bounce One Baby). We also loved Fuzzy Chick & Friends.
As he got older we found Let’s Go Walking and Let’s Go Visiting which are larger board books on counting and colors.
For us, it had to have a good rhyming pattern so we didn’t mind reading it over and over and over again.
Oh, how I love finding new books to share! Thanks for the suggestions, please keep ‘em coming.
Love the books you chose.
You’ve listed some of my absolute favorites!!
What an uplift post! The photo you selected is soooooooo adorable … it’s impossible not to feel warm and fuzzy inside!
These are great suggestions for gifts for new-parents-to-be!
Miss Gisele B.
LOVE all your suggestions!