groundspeed

KWLS

As in the Key West Literary Seminar. As in what/where this mamma spent all her Christmas/birthday money. (The folks are generous - spent in one place, it can do something.)

I was going no matter what. Kevin was invited if he could take the days off work. Stay home and watch kids vs an already-paid-for Key West trip? He chose to come with. Mom got stuck with the kids.

We left on my birthday! We checked in, drove to The Flaming Buoy for our dinner reservation, and then I was off to the opening seminar event, a conversation between Douglas Coupland and William Gibson who I'm told coined the term "cyberspace."

All events were held at the San Carlos:

And the stage, although not meant to look like the set of Hugo, did...

It's Steampunk...  
(And no, I had no idea what that was before this weekend.) 

I bailed on a champagne reception and headed back to the B&B where Kevin awaited in the heated pool, under an almost-full moon, a bottle of our own champagne already open. No lie. That is how I ended my evening on the day I turned 34. How every birthday should pass...

And the day after every birthday should include a discussion with Joyce Carol Oates (so serious), China Mieville (so passionate), and Margaret Atwood looking highly amused and successfully prodding both of them, all under the skillfull moderation of James Gleik. This remained my favorite event of the seminar. By the end even Oates cracked a smile and began saying things like, "Don't bore the audience. If the audience is getting bored, gauge someone's eye out."

Afterwards, at the book signing Oates and Atwood each wrote "Happy Birthday" in the books I had for them to sign.

This is foremost a "Mommy Blog" and I may be totally boring you with all these writerly things. I don't want to resort to eye gauging, but a few more quick moments...

On Friday Kevin and I had lunch at Sarabeth's.

We didn't know it, but Sarabeth's was the place to be. Fantastic food and half the authors from the conference were there. I was shoulder to shoulder with Michael Cunningham (he wrote The Hours, made into a movie, Nicole Kidman won an Oscar...) and after we left I fell into step with Judy Blume (Superfudge! Are You there God, It's Me, Margaret.) on the sidewalk (THE Judy Blume, who wasn't a speaker but is on the board of directors) and we talked. A casual conversation with Judy Blume on a Key West sidewalk. Sounds like the kind of thing that should be preceded by, I had the funniest dream last night... But it really happened.

I loved walking down Duval every morning, early enough that it was just me and the street sweepers. Well, and the roosters.

Saturday night and Sunday morning we were amused by all the Ragnar runners in tutus. (Didn't know what the Ragnar Relay was until this weekend either.)

I loved climbing up the lighthouse at Saturday night's dinner.

I loved this dog at Mallory Square whose talent was to take dollars and put them in a bucket:

And this street performer who kept telling dirty jokes and then saying, "Don't worry! The kids don't get it!"

And getting up to watch the sun RISE on Sunday:

Then listening to Gary Steyngart (Super Sad Love Story) who spoke at 9:50am and China Mieville (Embassytown) who spoke at 10:20am complain about how early it was. Ha!

Kevin ate a lot of key lime pie.

I chose key lime ice cream and a key lime mango smoothie on the ride home.

Why is this here and not on my long abandoned author blog?

Because I wasn't there as an author. I was there as a mom who needed the beginning of her year to be about something other than her kids. I was there as a reader and a fan who wanted to listen to the authors of books she has read. (Stalking them at restaurants was an unintended but happy bonus.) I was there as an MFA who has sorely missed good literary discussion. At the very bottom of this list in small, doesn't-want-to-jinx-it print, I was there as a writer seeking motivation that could possibly, hopefully launch me into some sort of momentum for this upcoming year.

No promises. 

No matter what does or does not get written, so glad I went.

I expect there will be many blogs on this event, but here's one, much more comprehensive.

In All Seasons... Thankful.

I spent a lot of time at the end of last year pondering my own lack of thankfulness. When the dust (or rather the urine) has settled and Blue was consistently behaving (for Blue) again and I had time to reflect on my own whininess and, lets me honest, anger, I knew my lack of joy in those circumstances (still dwelling on I Thes 5:18) had everything to do with entitlement.

I am a fragile X carrier. I dealt with that blow. I adopted a boy from Russia.

I loved, LOVED living in Wilmington, NC, but God called us to Texas for Kevin's flight training. Me, a democrat, moving to east, podunk Texas. Talk. About. Sacrifice. (But I came around. There's definitely a soft spot in my heart for Texas.)

And in Texas, we terrific martyrs that we are, become foster parents

Foster parents who ended up in a legal nightmare. But we won. And we adopted again.

Meanwhile I ended up pregnant (surprise!) and shortly after our third son was born we received his Fragile X diagnosis.

And then we moved. With very little money and the knowledge that Kevin would be gone all the time traveling to raise his support/salary before we could be full-time with MFI.

During this we lived with my mother.

And I shared a room with my terrible-sleeper baby so for 5 months I didn't sleep. As in, four straight hours, was a good night. FOR FIVE MONTHS.

But then we got a house! And we loved our house! And Kevin had enough support to start with MFI! And we were all together again! And Toby started sleeping! And from August 2010 till about mid-January 2011 life was really, really good. 

And after so much struggle and sacrifice and I felt entitled to be in this good place. I felt as though 2011 would be our year to breath a little and focus on the little things. Like having people over for dinner. Seriously our main goal for 2011 was having more people over for dinner.

And then my perfect, happy year with perfect happy dinner parties crumbled because of the defiance of one pissy four-year-old.

And I lost my joy. 

Because I wanted one NORMAL year. I felt entitled to one NORMAL (bleepity, bleepin') year.

I was angry. (How dare you, God not give me a year off from sacrifice.)

But come fall. When things started to get better. I felt a little like a, well, four-year-old.

And I felt a little embarrassed that after an adoption, legal battle, moves, Fragile X diagnosis, etc, it took a four-year-old pissing all over my house, to cause me to lose my joy and shake my hand at God and say, ENOUGH.

In hindsight, feeling a little sheepish about that.

In 2012 I want my joy to overflow from thankfulness. In all seasons. In all circumstances. 

And a friend sent me the perfect gift for this goal.

33 pages in and the ice of resentment birthed from my entitlement is melting. When I closed the book for the day I headed over to the author's blog and came away with yet another gem:

There’s only one address anyone lives at and it’s always a duplex: Joy and pain always co-habit every season of life. Accept them both and keep company with the joy while the pain does it’s necessary renovations.

In 2012 I will accept the residence of joy and pain together. 

And, in the journal gifted to me by another friend, I will keep a list of 2012's daily gifts... 

Today I began:

1. Friends who give good and perfect gifts.

2. Kaden and Blue racing on the beach.

3. So many shades of blue in one land(sea)scape.

4. Piles upon piles of incredible shells just heaped onto the beach for our perusal. No hunting and gathering work needed, just to plop in the midst and scoop by the handful...

5. Legos keeping the boys entertained and a perfect playlist keeping me entertained while I made beans, corn bread and zucchini fries for dinner.

6. Kevin doing his nightly Bible study with the boys. 

Just getting started. ;-)

Reading About Thanksgiving

November came and we have gotten our Thanksgiving reading assembled.

A book we have that I read aloud to the boys is Thanksgiving: A Harvest Celebration by Julie Stiegemeyer

I like this one because it is in the point of view of a pilgrim child. It's a fictional account (I looked up Elizabeth Chilton, the main character, and although there was a Chilton who signed the Mayflower Compact there was no Elizabeth in the lineage that would have been there at that time.) that nicely paints the picture of the difficult time of the pilgrims and relates it to how/why we celebrate Thanksgiving today. It also places the emphasis on thankfulness within its rightful Christian perspective. On the very last page are the words of the doxology (Praise God from whom all blessing flow...) and I love singing this after we read the book. But this is not a facts book. You will not come across the usual stat of 102 pilgrims/50 died the first winter. The word Womanoag does not appear. Still, it's helpful for your child to see it from the child's persepctive and be introduced to that world. Also, illustrations by Renee Benoit are lovely.

For a non fiction account we read The First Thanksgiving by Garnet Jackson

We checked this out from the library. This was easy enough for Kaden, age 7 and in second grade, to read in about one 20 minute sitting and that's with stopping to talk about some things. An easy introduction to the facts. It tells that the Common House first built by the pilgrims did little to protect them from the cold and fifty (half!) the pilgrims died their first winter at Plymouth. You learn that Squanto already knew English. That most of his people had died from disease brought over by Englishmen. That the first Thanksgiving was actually in October and lasted three days and it was President Lincoln who made Thanksgiving an offical holiday, choosing the 4th Thursday in November for its celebration.

And then to mix up facts and fiction... Thanksgiving on Thursday, Magic Tree Hosue book #27 by Mary Pope Osbourne.

Another library checkout. We're reading about two chapters a night, but I've already skimmed through to the end. This weaves some of the historical details into the story of Jack and Annie crashing the first Thanksgiving, but it mostly focuses on how hard the pilgrim children worked to help. Jack and Annie feel very inadequate. It also emphasizes the differences in the pilgrim's old English and Jack and Annie's modern slang. In the end the message is one that praises the "magic of community" and being kind to those who are different and afraid. There's also a Thanksgiving facts section at the end of the book.

That's been our seasonal reading so far. I'm sure the boys are up for more recommendations if you've got 'em.

FREE Book

I bought this book because of the Fragile X plot line but haven't read it yet, so I can't recommend exactly but THE PRICE IS RIGHT.  

The author, Maureen Lang, just sent this message to a Fragile X listserv I'm part of:

I wanted to let everyone know that for the next few weeks (until Sept 24th), The Oak Leaves will be a free download for anyone with a Kindle, Nook or electronic reader (or you can download it to your computer or phone if you have an app to read Kindle books, I believe).

For those new to the list, this 2007 novel is about a woman who discovers her Victorian grandmother's journal and references to the "feeblemindedness" in her family - just as the modern day woman begins seeing signs of developmental delay in her toddler. It's a fictional story about a family just learning about Fragile X in their genes and told from two generations, one modern and the other Victorian.

I'm so glad my publisher is doing this promotion - right now The Oak Leaves is No. 1 on the Free Kindle download list (yippee!) so maybe it's attracting new readers who will learn about Fragile X as they're (hopefully) being entertained.

Just in the interest of full disclosure, I wrote the book from a Christian perspective, although it's more a story of how people with a Christian worldview handle the diagnosis rather than a story preaching Christianity.

So if you have a Kindle or Nook, the price is right to take a peek at this book. :-)

Here are the links:

Kindle (Amazon)

Nook (Barnes and Noble) 

Midweek Mommy Question - Fun New Books?

We've been a lot better about getting books from the library lately.  It's hard to track down a book with Blue and Toby running around, so I have a new system where I just put everything I want on hold from my computer at home and then I wait for them to call me so all I'll have to do is run in and pick the books up. Love it.

Mostly I've been getting books for Kaden.  They have a "100 Book Challenge" they do at school and especially since baseball started, we've been bad about reading time.  Part of the problem is getting the right books at his reading level.  He's a good reader but he's got no love for it, so even though he's ready to read longer, better books we're in I Can Read! Level 2 and Level 3 books.  I've bought a ton of these, but it was time to go the cheaper, library route. The I Can Read! books have been fine, but two other books we found that we all really enjoyed were: Pigs, Pigs, Pigs! and Cats, Cats, Cats! both by Leslea Newman. 

Pigs, Pigs, Pigs!

I enjoyed the illustrations.  I love the food words and the whimsy of the whole thing.  Essentially a town is getting ready to host a whole buncha pigs who feast and then dance.  What's not to love about feasting and dancing?

And then Cats, Cats, Cats!

Also visually very fun.  The poor woman in this book loves her cats and cleans and takes care of them all day so that they can party and live it up all night.  

Kaden enjoyed reading them both which isn't saying much because his only criteria for liking a book is that it isn't too long.  (Boo! What am I going to do with him?!) But, Blue and I were also entertained by these books so they come with our recommendation!

What children's books have you encountered recently that we should add to our library hold list?

My Year in Books

Tinsel by Hank Stuever (non-fiction)
Open House by Elizabeth Berg
One Day by David Nicholls
The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson
The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stuart (children's lit)
North! Or Be Eaten by Andrew Peterson (children's lit)
On the Edge of the Dark Sea of Darkness by Andrew Peterson (children's lit)
The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton
Out Stealing Horses by Per Peterson
Autism's False Prophets by Paul Offit (non-fiction)
Little Bee by Chris Cleave
Radical by David Platt (non-fiction)
East of the Sun by Julia Gregson
Body Surfing by Anita Shreve
Oh Me of Little Faith by Jason Boyett (non-fiction)
The Queen's Pawn by Christy English
We Were the Mulvaney's by Joyce Carol Oates
The Daughter of Time by Josephine Tey
The Kommandant's Girl by Pam Jenoff
A Prayer for Own Meany by John Irving 

That's the list of what I read through this year in order from most recent and going back to January. What I find most remarkable about this list is what I did not read, or reread that is: not a Twilight book, Harry Potter book, or Jane Austen novel in the bunch. But as for what I did read, here's what I thought: 

Best Book of the Year:  A Prayer for Own Meany by John Irving
Runner Up: Little Bee by Chris Cleave

Most Entertaining: Tie 
East of the Sun by Julia Gregson and One Day by David Nicholls
Runner Up: Body Surfing by Anita Shreve

Worst Reads: Tie 
The Daughter of Time by Josephine Tey 
Out Stealing Horses by Per Peterson  

In 2011 I know I'll be reading... (especially since I already own the first three)
Lies of the Heart by Michelle Boyajian and Far Beyond the Pale by Daren Dean - these are novels by MFA colleagues that I'm particularly excited to read
The Oak Leaves by Maureen Lang - a novel with Fragile X factoring into the plot
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins (January book group pick)
Emma by Jane Austen (it's due for a re-read!) 
And I really hope Andrew Peterson gets the next book in the Wingfeather Saga out in the Spring as promised because those are fun reads.

Beyond that, I'm always up for ideas, so what's the best thing you read in 2010?

Oh Me of Little Faith

I just read a book about doubt.  I read this book not because of the topic but because of the author.  Oh and I got a free advance copy from the publisher.  But I would have read it anyway (I swear!) because I really do like the author. This is not him, but from his description in Chapter One, you'd think so.


The cover makes it look like a memoir, but I'd say it's a book that explores the topic of doubt using personal narratives.  To me, that means less like Anne Lamott, more like Donald Miller.  

So.  About the author.
I read an article by Jason Boyett in Relevant  this summer.  And because I read this article while en route to North Carolina from Texas sitting in the backseat of the van with an 8-week-old Toby as my primary company, I was able to read the article, pull out my laptop, and type up a blog post response which I posted here.

And then I found his blog, and I’ve been reading it ever since.  I especially love when he posts creepy Jesus pictures.  If I ever just start chuckling for no reason, then there’s a strong possibility that I’m recalling this from an entire post about Jesus with dinosaur pictures:

Yup, I am forever grateful to Jason Boyett for introducing me to this picture.

But how did I get a free advance copy?
I asked for one and promised to blog about it.  Jason is on a blog tour, his publisher, Zondervan, sent copies to folks who wanted to be on the blog tour and for some crazy reason this mommy blog was okayed for a tour stop.  I don’t get it either.

A book about doubt, huh?  How’d that work for me?
Not surprisingly I’ve been thinking a lot about doubt since finishing it about a week ago. I’ve been considering what the deal breakers are in terms of taking on the label Christian, my own periods of doubt, and why I am not in such a period at the moment. 

Lets start with my own doubt.
But first we’ll take a real quick glance at my faith story:  When I was little, like pre-first grade little, I recall making up songs and singing them to God.  Why?!  My family didn’t go to church.  There were no bedtime prayers in my bedtime routine.  Where did this sense of God come from?  And then my parents sent me to a Christian school (long story) and it was as though I was like yes! Exactly!  That’s the information I knew was there but no one told me before!  So I did what my first grade teacher told me to do and I prayed to receive Jesus in my heart.  And then sometime in middle school I wanted to be baptized.  And then sometime in high school my commitment to all things faith got more fervent and I got to go on cool mission trips and youth camps and retreats and concerts and… yup, all of it.  I even have a plaque somewhere (unless it doesn’t make this most recent move) that speaks to what an outstanding youth grouper I was.

And then I was a freshmen in college and I thought:  
If God is so loving and God is omniscient, why did He create people knowing they would sin if that meant even a single soul would go to hell?  Suddenly the God of the creation story was all selfish in my mind.

And then my sophomore year I went to Spain for a semester and I recognized for the first time that I wasn’t just a Christian, but I was an American Christian, and my world of camps and retreats and music and… was a kind of crazy subculture.  And I wondered if all that was stripped away, how was it just between me and God? (Old school Sarah Groves song popping into my head right now How is it between us, oh how is it between us…).  And one night in Spain I went to bed asking myself, do I even believe in God?  And the next morning I woke up and my very first thought was, yes, I do. 

 Believing in God is an unshakable part of the chemical makeup that is Faydra.  There is a God – that’s my bottom turtle. (Turtles?  Yes, see chapter two. But to explain briefly, turtles are used as a metaphor for beliefs.  The bottom turtle is the one that holds ‘em all up.) That God exists is Boyett’s bottom turtle as well, but even this turtle he doubts.  Not me.  I don’t care about the arguments against my bottom turtle. I don’t even care about the arguments for my bottom turtle.  I’ve been through this. It’s just part of the unshakeable essence of Faydra.  Ditto for my second turtle: Jesus, who was all-man and all-God died and literally rose again and for some reason I do not understand, it makes all the difference.  

That’s an awful lot to pack onto a single turtle.
I know!  But all of that, for me to keep going as a Christian, has to be.  Let’s go back to the selfish God of whom freshmen Faydra was less fond.   He’s not so selfish if He has a plan for a redeemer, a rescuer, a lover, a hero in a beautiful narrative that weaves from In the beginning was the Word all the way to well, how many people are on the planet right now?  Maybe I have to pack all of this onto my second turtle because I just so love the story.  Maybe I believe it because it’s absolutely true.  Maybe I believe it because culturally I was raised to believe it.  Why doesn’t matter.  I believe it.

After that?  Hmmmmmm.  Have I ever told you that for the wife of a missionary, I am really a terrible Christian?  Because somewhere between high school where I lined up with all the kids in the youth group and was all set to someday believe as they believed and vote the way they voted and…  Sometime after that I changed.  Because all these lines that fellow believers started drawing and marking with a capital T, Truth whether they were in terms of theology or politics or very specific rules pertaining to morality, it all felt so divisive and the ones drawing the lines seemed so smug, and well, it didn’t seem as important as just trying to be Jesus, trying to feed sheep. I heard a whole lotta Christian speakers in college but the faith experience I feel best about was something called Kid’s Club where a group of us went every Friday afternoon and hung out in the projects with little kids.  We played games, brought a snack, and talked.  Totally perfect.

Somehow, I entered the University of Florida as a straight edge, Republican, who had a giant stack of turtles that matched very nicely to what I had been taught at the First Baptist Church.  But by the time I graduated I was reading Harry Potter (so clearly not a straight edge), leaning towards being an Independent, and many turtles had been knocked off the stack.

How did this get so long? 
Especially when I haven't touched on anything beyond chapter two!  I guess my post will have to be posts...

Midweek Mommy Question - Whatcha reading?

Really this question is for anyone, not just moms.  I know there are moms who bawk at this concept of having time to read for pleasure, but it can be done.  I know.  I have three kids and I read.  And I'm looking for book recommendations. 

Usually when we go on road trips I have all my books picked out and I'm sooooo excited about the car-time where my kids are strapped in and I can read and read and read!  But this time, I didn't want to spend money and I don't have a library card in Florida yet, so I pulled two books off my Mom's shelf.  And I didn't do a very good job.  I picked one so-so book (which I read on Monday - thankfully it wasn't very long) and one TERRIBLE book (which I skimmed and never plan to open again).  Thankfully I brought another book, a book I've owned but procrastinated reading for a long time, We Were the Mulvaneys by Joyce Carol Oates.  I've procrastinated it because it's a depressing premise - happy family destroyed by the daughter's rape.  But so far it is so well done.  Joyce Carol Oates.  Of course it is.

I think I want to read more John Irving and more Cormac McCarthy. Or... I could read? What? Let me know. Once I'm done with the Mulvaney's I'm going to break down and hit a bookstore so make a recommendation!  

It's February

How did that happen?  I haven't even made my New Year's Resolutions yet!  Watching Kevin stick to his is tiring enough.  (Who I am kidding?  It's Toby by night and Blue by day who tire me out.) 

I don't mean to make light of the whole New Years Resolution thing, but it's all I can do to keep up with the day to day stuff like keeping my kid's clothed and bathed.  It's been over two weeks since Kevin's been home and I'm really glad he'll be back tonight or tomorrow (depending on if he drives through) because I'm sick of doing the dishes and doing the bedtime routine for all three kids. (I cook, he cleans. I put one or two kids to bed, he puts one or two kids to bed.  Single parenting is no fun - especially in the evenings!)  

So I'm not kicking myself for not keeping up with Kevin's Bibleread schedule or for not losing any more of the baby weight just yet.  Instead I'm just keeping everyone clothed and bathed, homework done, parks visited by day, stories read by night...  But by the end of the year, there are some pretty big things I expect for our family:

*I expect Kevin to raise his full support and I'm hoping he can start with MFI by the end of the summer.  While he travels, I hold down all things home front, so that will be my accomplishment too.  

*I expect to find a church and have some new friends.  No luck in this category yet, but we've got 11 months to go.

*I expect to move into our house and get it up to our standards (Kevin won't let me post pictures until I have the AFTER pics to go with the before shots!).

*I expect to have a pantry that reflects our whole family is enjoying healthy living.  (Considering going totally gluten free at home and cutting back on dairy.)

*I expect to read at least 11 more novels.  So far in 2010 I've read A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving.  Up next the book my dad just self published.  After that The Kommandant's Girl by Pam Jenoff. After that?  I'm up for suggestions particularly if you have any Cormac McCarthy favorites (I've only read The Road.) or John Irving favorites (I've only read Owen Meany.).

*In addition to novels I'll read some non fiction.  Currently reading Sleep Better!  A Guide to Improving Sleep for Children with Special Needs.  Up next: Raising a Sensory Smart Child.

*I expect to transition Toby into having his own room and letting me sleep through the night.  OH YES I DO!!!!

*I have some expectations for this blog, but I'm not ready to share.

*I expect to have Toby challenged and in the appropriate therapies.  We did his Early Steps eval this past Thursday and honestly, he continues to score fine (he was at age level, a month below, or even months ahead depending on the category), but because he's still not using many consonants, we're going to start speech therapy once a week and if he isn't fully crawling within this next month we'll start PT too.

*I expect we'll take the kids to Disney. 

And whether or not I manage to go down a jean size, when all that happens I will be very, very pleased with my 2010.

And for right now, while we're still at my mom's and some aspects of progress are stuck in inevitable limbo, I will celebrate the little accomplishments. Like Friday. I got my FL driver's license.  Two trips to the driver's license place with kids in tow. A few tears.  A fire alarm ALMOST pulled. (Blue.) A diaper I could smell while doing the eye exam and final stages of signing and answering.  A diaper that ended up being a blow-out. (Trashed that outfit.) But I got it done.  I got it done on the last working day of January which means that I HAVE established my Florida residency a full year before the NEXT deadline of Florida pre-paid goes by.  Whew.

And I will keep doing what I'm good at doing and what comes easily for me:  Blogging, taking a ridiculous amount of pictures, and posting some of those pictures. So, here's a few from our weekend:

 

Starting Baby's Library

I have a bunch of very close friends who are pregnant with their first child, so I'm thinking seriously about what needs to be on these babies' book shelves. (And yes, I'm shopping to help those shelves start filling up.)  These are mostly mainstream kinda books, many you can find find in any bookstore, probably even Target or Walmart.  Also, thematically some of these books are great for older kids too, but for this list I've picked books that, for one reason or another, I find appropriate for the two and under crowd.

1.  
Toby's favorite book is Mirror Me, a Baby Einstein book, and I tried to buy this for Baby Phillips, whose mommy had a baby shower yesterday, but they didn't have it when I was shopping.  Pretty much Toby just likes the mirrors, so I settled for Baby Einstein's I See Me.  This is also a super cute book for your baby or toddler. (And Toby likes it too - we read it in the store to make sure it was ok!)

2. 
We're Going on a Bear Hunt. I love reading this book.  I love the sounds.  I love the speed that automatically enters my voice when the family is racing home.  This has been a long-time favorite for my boys, but we've always just checked it out of the library.  I finally broke down and bought the board book version for Toby as one of his St. Nick gifts earlier this month. 

3.
Max the Minnow.  Kaden had this one. We've since passed it on, but it used to be a favorite and when I was looking at books for Baby Phillips I was reminded how fun it was and couldn't pass it up.

4. 
The Napping House.  I just bought the board book of this for Toby as a stocking stuffer.  It's the same illustrator (Don Wood) and done in a similar style as King Bidgood's in the Bathtub. Both are lovely.  

5. 
The Very Hungry Caterpillar.  This is Kaden's favorite Eric Carle because he loves food so much, and I think he has the caterpillar's feast memorized by now.  My second favorite is probably A House for Hermit Crab because you can have a fun conversation with a toddler/preschooler about stuff they've outgrown.  The Grouchy Ladybug is great fun as well.

6. 
Quick as a Cricket. 
This was just given to Blue as an Adoption Day present and it just now occurred to me that this is another book illustrated by Don Wood.  The pictures are again, fantastic, but the style is different, more vibrant. The idea behind this book, that one person can be so many things, is perfect for toddlers and grownups alike.  (Because I don't know about you, but I can be as nice as a bunny and I can also be as mean as a shark!) 

7. 
Little Miss Spider is probably my favorite book with an adoption theme.  We have many more which are overt in their message, but this is the one I like best.  The rhyme scheme is fun, the pictures are bright, and the message is that families can come together in unexpected ways. And that is much appreciated for our household.

8. 
Snuggle Up Sleepy Ones.  Something about all these cute, snuggly animal babies just makes me want to, well, snuggle up and go to bed. (Doesn't seem to work on my kids though.)

9. 
But Not the Hippopotamus.  We don't have many Sandra Boynton's because honestly, I think the illustrations are kinda lame, but this book is just so funny!

10. 
Trashy Town.  We've made up motions for this one and everything.  Fun sing-song book, great for boys, and perfect to read on trash pick-up days then stand by the window to watch "Mr. Gilly" come by your house!

11. 
The Lion and the Mouse by Jerry Pinkney.  This book is new and only in hardcover but I will buy it as soon as it becomes a board book.  For the most part there are no words, just some "sound" words and yet it tells this classic story very clearly.  (Illustrations are amazing.)

12. 
The Family Book and The Peace Book by Todd Parr. He's got soooo many but these are two we own that I love. Yes, I called Boynton's illustrations lame, but yes, I like Todd Parr.  Nope, can't explain that.  I think what I like about Parr is that he's all: I'm okay, you're okay, let's all just be happy and see the world in bold colors and simple images, okay?  The Family Book is another one that addresses adoption in a pleasantly matter-of-fact way.  Oh, but one disclaimer: there is a page that some more conservative than I may not like (it addresses all kinds of families but honestly, I think, if a kid actually catches that, it's a great way to enter the discussion...)

13. 
Whoever You Are by Mem Fox.  Mem Fox's books are vastly different.  She has some books that I don't like at all (A Particular Cow - hate that book) But this book, this book is perfect.

14. 
Here's where I recommend a Christmas book.  Hmmmm.  Most of the religious Christmas books we own are better for older kids.  Hmmmmm.  Ok, this isn't religious at all, but sometimes, and only sometimes, when I'm in the mood to do it right (which means I have to SING the whole thing), I do find myself enjoying Elmo's 12 Days of Christmas. 

Ok, what's your "must" for a new baby's book shelf?