Half-full

This book is delightful in so many ways -- the text is charming and the art is wonderfully whimsical (don't miss the rabbit blowing milk bubbles with his straw), but mostly I love it because of a conversation it sparked. But let me backtrack: this book offers interesting definitions of words like "modest," "envy" and "respect."

As my son looked at the page describing "optimist" and "pessimist," which shows a grumpy lady rabbit to the left, and a joyous, baseball-cap-wearing rabbit to the right, both with half a cookie on their plates, my son said, "I don't get it. They both have the same amount of cookie left." And we had a lovely conversation about how even when the situation is the same, two people can perceive things differently.

Don't miss Little Pea, another of our favorites by A. K. Rosenthal. 

A book to remember by

My brother and sister-in-law made this amazing photo book recounting the trip their family made to California to visit us. 

Using photos they took and simple text, they put it all together at Shutterfly. If you have a Mac, there are also easy options through iphoto. 

Now I'm thinking that I'll co-opt their idea for our upcoming trip and take photos with a story in mind: packing suitcases, leaving the house, at the airport, etc. 

It's such a fun, personalized gift that little ones will admire over and over. And in the case of family vacations, you can make multiple copies to share with all branches.

Blast off for summer!

I'm a fan of homemade popsicles, but up until now, I haven't been happy with the popsicle molds I've found. But now the search is over, thanks to these blue Tovolo Rocket Pop Molds. 

If you're looking for ideas, it's super easy to make your own popsicles, and sneak some healthy stuff in along the way. Here are some of the ingredients I usually use:

-- any fruit (fresh or frozen; bananas, strawberries and mangoes are the top picks here)

-- avocado

-- flax seed

-- juice

-- yogurt

Whip it all together in the blender, pour it into the molds, and enjoy!

Create your own dragon

Ronan received this cool Bloco set from his Aunt Amye. You use foam pieces and connectors to create all kinds of creatures. He adheres pretty strictly to the instructions, but I think as he gets older he'll be able to dream up his own reptilian designs.

The major downside is tons of very small pieces (eyeballs and connectors), so if you have a little one around, beware.

Made in Canada! And there are a few different themed sets available from Fat Brain.

A Million Words

Photographer Anita Maya. Love her. She's amazing. Isn't my one-year-old son just dreamy?

I spy with my little eye...

Ronan's Nonna gave him one of these Hide and Seek bags over a year ago, and it's suddenly vaulted into the "favorite car toy" category. It's a fleece pillow that's filled with soft pellets and about 40 little trinkets. You choose an item from the attached laminated list, and then manipulate the insides around until the chosen object appears in the "window."  

Unfortunately, it appears that this particular seller is out of business, but quite a few Etsy   stores have them in stock. Search "I spy bag" or "hide and seek bag".

Familiar Voices

You may remember my earlier post about how my son loves to listen to stories on CD. Well, thanks to our relatives, who are both open to my zany suggestions and fairly technologically capable, we took it one step further. For Christmas this year, they purchased picture books, recorded themselves reading them, and then burned CDs. So now my son has a stack of new books, and he can pop in a CD and hear, for instance, Uncle Mike reading Traction Man Is Here (with Aunt Jamie on sound effects). Since we live across the country from our families, it's a nice way for him to feel connected. My older niece and nephew even did some reading for him!

A few longer books that I think work well are Flat Stanley, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, Sylvester and the Magic Pebble, A Bad Case of Stripes, Eloise, How I Became a Pirate, Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel, Make Way for Ducklings, and Fairy Houses.

I've burned all the individual CDs into iTunes and made one master CD. Sometimes Ronan listens to the whole thing before bed, in the dark, without looking at the books.

With a Mac, it's pretty easy to use GarageBand to record (and put in little sound effects as the page-turning notification). Pretend like you're making a podcast. On a PC, download Audacity (which is free).

I'd love to hear suggestions for longer picture books that would work well, so if you have any in mind, please comment.