B's Books: Current Favorites

We have acquired quite the book collection for B. since we found out we were pregnant.

There for a while it seemed we read the same books all the time, without exploring the other ones on the shelf.  Mostly out of pure laziness on our part.  We would pick the books that were closet to the nightstand or rocking chair to read.  At the beginning of the year, I decided to try a new thing to help in reading all the books we have.  We pick 3 books (mommy, daddy, & B. each picks one) each night to be read.  This system works out perfect for us and it's great for rotating the 568 books we have.

But of course, there are still favorites.  If it's a favorite, it normally gets read throughout the day multiple times, goes in the car with us, or stays out wherever B. is playing so he can look through it himself.  Here are currently some of his current favorites:


Roadwork by Sally Sutton - We've read this one 100 times.  Brady picked this one out himself one day at Barnes & Nobles.  It details how a road is made in sequence order, and has fun rhyming and "sound words" at the end of each step.  It is colorful, and just fun!  Perfect for any construction/tractor loving kid!  I just bought Demolition the other day so we are now mixing it with up with that one.

Tiger Can't Sleep by S.J. Fore and R.W. Alley - I happened to find this one in some of my old teaching stuff.  This has quickly become a favorite!  It's about a tiger that can't sleep.  Obviously ;) He lives in the boy's closet and has a hard time going to sleep.  He plays the tuba, clicks the light on & off, bounces a ball, and the list goes on in order to finally get to sleep in bed with the boy.

Blue Hat, Green Hat by Sandra Boynton - We love all off the Boynton board books!  But this one is a current favorite, probably because it's the newest one to our collection.  This one gets read sometimes 3 and 4 times in a row.  Brady cracks up at every single "oops!"  It is such a simple book, but for some reason so very funny!  And at only $3.30 on Amazon, it is a must have!

If You Give a Mouse a Cookie by Laura Numeroff - This classic read aloud is about a mouse who wants a cookie, then milk, then a broom to clean up his mess, then a nap, and the list goes on.  It actually reminds me of myself throughout the day.  It's one thing, one thing leads to another, and then another...a never-ending process.  We have the Christmas version of this one also.  There are several versions of this book that I'm sure as time goes on we'll add to our library.

Are You My Mother? by P.D. Eastman - Can't go wrong with this classic board book.  Brady loves to ask each of us after we read it, "are you a snort/cow/doggie?" then tell us "oh there's my mother/daddy!"  It is a sweet little story of a bird who gets out of his nest and goes looking for his mother.  This is another cheap one (under $3) that you won't regret adding to your child's library!

These last few aren't really read alouds but more just fun, semi-informative books that B. happens to love and looks at over and over.  And perfect for in the car!

First Look and Find Mickey Mouse Clubhouse On the Go - When out and about, I try really hard not to get toys as a "treat" but rather he gets to pick out a book.  We picked this one out at Wal-Mart when he was into "mouse."  He still watches Mickey Mouse every once in a while but he still enjoys this book.  It has a list of things on the side of the page that you are supposed to find. He has pretty much mastered that part and basically just tells us what they are, instead of us asking him.  So now we ask/find other things that aren't listed. He loves to find "Pete" in the scenes and thinks "Goofy" is just too funny!  He now has a Doc McStuffins version of this book that he got in his Easter basket.  These are great for in the car, on long road trips.  Lots to look at!

These truck books by Roger Priddy have been worth every penny.  They are board books but they have been read/looked through so much the board corners are starting to fray.  I got both of ours from Sam's Club.  They are perfect for my truck/tractor loving little boy!

I have a huge Amazon wishlist of books that I keep adding to.  I love that B. loves to read and ask several times a day to read.  I hope his love for reading is like his daddy's and never ceases.  Because I'll be real honest, I am sadly not an avid reader.  I'd much rather sleep!  :)

With that being said...what are some of your favorite children's books? 

Park, Birds, and Water

 Today, I randomly decided let's go to town.  Daddy had forgotten his lunch on the counter so I thought it would be a good excuse to get out of the house and deliver him his lunch.

Notice "cabin fever" has I said in my previous post.  I am normally a homebody and have to drag myself out of the house, but not lately.  I'm sure B appreciates it, poor thing is probably bored to death with me. ha!

After a quick trip to daddy's office and trip to Sonic for daddy and The Corner Bakery for me...we headed to a park on Ocean Drive.

As we were pulling into the park, B tells me with excitement in his little voice, "ohhh yea the park...I love it momma!"  I laughed and said well then that makes it all worth it!

He loved looking for "goldfish" and I so enjoyed just being by the water and listening to the waves.  It's these kind of days/moments that make my heart so full.  Fresh air really does wonders for me, ha!

Love this sweet boy so very much!  I am loving his independence but still has a need for momma.  His little mind is always working and totally cracks me up some of the things he comes up with.  Turned out to be a gorgeous day for the park!  So glad I made a random decision to get out of the house.  Please excuse the 2 day old hair and no make-up...just keepin' it real! :)

We played, ran, climbed, climbed some more, and then took a break by the water.  After we chased a few sea gulls...he would run up to them and say, "Hi bird, how are you?" then when they would start to run off, he would tell them "go faster, go faster!"  Love!!!  He also liked to tell me on the playground, "no momma go away!"  I guess when you're two, it's not cool to have your mom with you....such a funny boy!

Ani-mules, funnel cake, & popcorn...oh my!

Last week my mom came to town and it just so happened it was also our the county show.

We took Brady for the day to see the "ani-mules" and he loved it!

The day she came into town, we went to eat at one of our favorite Mexican restaurants for lunch.  Yum!

We saw turkeys, chickens, rabbits, goats, cows, and pigs.

He went up to all the pens.  He would say, "Hi!  Tractor!" haha!  Such a sweet boy!

I took our DSLR but when I got there realized it had NO card.  Ugh!!!  So phone pictures it was...

Two must have fair treats...funnel cake & the best lemonade ever!  Hand shaken and lots of sugar!  Strawberries make the funnel cake, healthy...right??

He got to snack on funnel cake & kettle corn while we shopped.  I think my heart might burst looking at in with his big bag of popcorn...LOVE!!!

After some fun seeing the "ani-mules" we went into town so my mom could get her phone checked out at Verizon.  Then decided to grab some coffee and a snack at my new favorite place, The Corner Bakery.  We then walked over to check out our new HomeGoods.

Life is good.  And life is especially good when Mimi is here!!!!

Our weekend

Back to the ol' blogging about life...this may be insanely boring to you but I want to remember these days in years to come so here goes...

Our weekend was nothing exciting, but definitely well lived.  Friday was a busy day! 

We had music class Friday morning at churhc (which I teach) then rushed into town to meet daddy for lunch.  With a few people from his work.  It was one of the guys that AB works with birthday and so we celebrated over a little hot wings!  B was such a good boy, considering it took almost an hour for our food to arrive.  Since I was in town I decided to make a quick Sam's run since our church nursery needed snacks.  B and I hit up Sam's then ran by Bed, Bath & Beyond to look for a new trash can.

Which why in the world are they 100 plus dollars????

And of course I decided we better make a Starbucks run while we were only a few minutes from one.  This is always a risky ordeal because B normally screams for a drink, when all I want is to enjoy my iced latte.  I didn't to take the risk...and the stars aligned as he fell asleep while waiting in the drive-thru line.  Only to drive away with the wrong drink...basically there was no caramel or vanilla in my caramel macchiato.  I know, a tragedy!

Womp, womp.

I decided I'd take a drive down to Ocean Dr. to sit and sip my disgusting iced coffee and have a little quiet time.  All was well. 

 

I was enjoying my time.  Just me, the bay, and surprisingly it wasn't crazy windy that day so I was able to roll down the windows and take it all in.

Then the bottom fell out.  Story of my life.  Let me just say apparently the park is where people come to do drugs and take their cat for a walk.  Yep, you read that right.  Take a cat for a walk.  Almost make the drugs deal not seem so abnormal???

Don't worry, I snapped a picture. 

Because I thought to myself...I couldn't make this stuff up even if I tried.

Then I caught myself listening to a Miley Cryus song and actually liked it.  Who am I???  During all my people watching, Brady woke up and so I decided we'd just open the sunroof, let in a little sunshine (after days and days of cold & rain) and cruise.

He loved looking at all the "boats and fishes" and of course loved listening to his favorite  song "Rock!" aka "Wagon Wheel."  What's not to love about that???  After that we headed home & waited for daddy!!!

Saturday:
I decided I wanted to go into town for our local farmers market.  So we got up and all headed into town for a little family time.  We stopped by the local farmers market for some soap, hummus, salsa, and hair stuff.  Totally random stuff, right?  Afterwards, we went to my favorite Mexican restaurant for breakfast.  It was good, but I'm still regretting just not getting enchiladas for breakfast! ;)

We then went by Target to look for a board game & get B this dog guitar that we've been wanting to get him since before Christmas.  It is VERY rare that we ever buy him toys!  Between his birthday and Christmas, we just go into toy overload!!!!  Purging is always a must and I almost decided against getting the guitar (again) because it I am so over stuff.  Of any kind.  More about that maybe another day.  We didn't find a board game at Target so we ran to Toys R Us to look then came home.

B napped while we caught up on Scandal.  We decided to go to eat pizza for dinner.  Yum!

Sunday:
We went to church then Sunday school, then went and met some friends for lunch.  After lunch, we all came home and took a glorious 3 hour nap!  I wasn't even ready to wake up.  I love my sleep and these late nights staying up watching movies needs to stop.

I got up and started tidying up the house because B's new and first babysitter was coming over to introduce herself to him.  Y'all this is a big deal to a momma!

At least this momma anyway.  I can't believe we are at hiring a babysitter stage.

We need a babysitter for Tuesday night and we found the most precious girl who happens to live a few houses down.  She's also the reigning beauty queen for our local county livestock show.  Ha, yes a real live princess Sophia.  Hahaha!  She came over and spent about an hour and B finally warmed up to her towards the end of her visit.  I think they will be just fine Tuesday night!

So nothing exciting, but definitely a great weekend.  I love being able to spend time with my family on the weekends, without having to worry with orders!!!!  I am so enjoying just living life.  Life is good!

What we're loving...

So I still have yet to blog about Thanksgiving or Christmas and I had intentions of doing one of them today but I decided to do a post about what's going on, in the present moment.  And somewhat of a photo dump from my phone...

Since the new year, it seems like we've been under the weather than we haven't.  We've had colds, stomach viruses, and other unknown viral infections.  We have been sick-free since Tuesday and I am hoping to stay that way!!!

Last week, B. and I were both sick and so my mom (aka mimi) came to be with us.  We loved having her here and I know B. enjoyed seeing his mimi.  I had been so looking forward to going to the farmers market on Wednesday and thank goodness we all felt well enough to go.

Felt great to get dress, have some human interaction, and get some fresh air and eggs!  Brady loved getting to roam around.  He is certainly wanting to be independent these days.

Over the weekend, we were better and then sickness struck once again.  Sunday, night I came down with a stomach virus.  It was awful but thankfully AB was great and helped nurse me back to health.  While being quarantined to my room, I decided to take advantage of my time and finally started watching the Downton Abbey series on Netflix.  Oh my, it's so good!  I watched the entire first season and episode 1, all within 2 days.  I am hooked.  I'm more than halfway through season 2, thanks to Hula Plus.  Why in the world doesn't Netflix have season 2???  I'm trying to get caught up with season 3.

Source

I am loving this show!  And that says a lot because I'm not much of a TV person and really just not into keeping up with a series.  But this is such a nice change from reality TV and I love learning about this time period.  Sooo good!

We've also been loving playing and exploring.  Since we've been sick, we've spent a lot of time playing at home.  Good thing we got an abundance of toys!  I started pulling and sorting toys to go into a tote, so we can rotate the toys in and out.  I think B. gets tired of playing with the same old toy and this way it's like we are getting "new" things but not really.

He got this cute dog for his birthday and he loves to sit in his chair and play with him.  Thanks Davis family for the great gift :)  He loves pressing all the buttons and it's heart.

So we've been filling our days with lots of play around the house.  Which I'm loving getting to see B. explore and play.  He is getting to wear he wants to play independently, which is a good and bad thing.  Independent means doing things his way and on his terms.  But for the most part, if it won't hurt him I let him be.  Except playing in the toilet, is where I draw the line ;)

Someone is also loving climbing...

That would be the end table that he is standing on.  He climbed unto the couch and then over to the table.  So the end table has been moved else where and his PBK chair also has a new home.  And this morning he managed to climb into the recliner...

And very proud of himself!  Mommy is not so much loving all the climbing...

On Tuesday, I was finally able to get to the grocery store and afterwards decided to take Brady to the park to let some energy out.  But first he had a good ol' time acting like a wild man in the car.  Playing the car seat and back seat is like Disney World to him.  He gets so excited and acts just plum crazy!  Probably because he isn't having to be strapped down.  Now that he is walking...the car seat is not his friend.

Poor baby wore himself plum out.  I think it was the swing that did it...totally relaxed him, he just wanted to lay down.  Haha!

And here are few more things we are loving this morning...

Seems like the simplest toys are the best!  Mimi got him a Fisher Price shape sorter for Christmas and he loves it.  He loves putting the blocks in the bucket, carrying it around, and dumping them out.  It's the one toy he consistently goes for.  Also makes a good teeth-er ;) 

And books.  We are loving books.  I try to make it a point to sit down and read a few times  a day.  It doesn't always happen but when it does, Little Blue Truck is a favorite!

And I mean who doesn't love avocado????  The skin and all???

And that's what we've been up to and what we're loving...