Cure for the We're-Stuck-Inside-Blues

My 2 1/2 year old whines. I hate whining. Hate is strong word but I really really HATE whining. It is like nails on a chalkboard for me. My friend told me about her method for stopping the whining. She came up with a silly word that made her son stop whining and giggle instead. Genius! I tried it. It didn't work. But I finally found something that does!! Not only does it stop my daughter from whining but it made my year old son stop crying.


First, a silly song.

Bonus: This song comes with a book! Or the other way around. We got the book and thought it was so cute. We tried to make up our own melody but then we found out we could download the actual song from Sandra Boynton here!

It was much better than the version we made up.







Next, a silly laugh-out-loud book.

Mo Willems is a genius when it comes to writing a story that is funny but has heart. Elephant and Piggy are a couple of our favorite characters. In this book, Piggy has a surprise for Elephant. He promises that it's going to be a good one. Of course, Elephant can't wait! Charlotte has said to me many times "Mommy, it's hard to wait." so this was something she could relate to.

The funny part is in how Elephant shows his distress.
Then again, it might be the way I read it. I really get into it. I dig deep and my kids think it's hilarious.

I am not kidding. 30 minutes before this picture was taken, they were both crying/whining/fighting. After the 2nd reading and a couple giggle-fits, they played together wonderfully. Until they realized they were hungry for lunch.

Julia's House for Lost Creatures

Ben Hatke is another author who I couldn't wait to share with my kids. He recently finished up his Zita the Spacegirl series, which I LOVED. It's a graphic novel series for 3rd-5th graders and while the main character is a girl, I think it's one that boys would enjoy as well.

Julia's House for Lost Creatures has a similar feel. I think of it as an introduction to graphic novels for readers of picture books. Most of the pages are laid out like your typical picture book with the whole page laying out one scene. But a few have 2 or more panels like a graphic novel. I didn't over analyze it to figure out why he changed it up. I just figured it was good practice for my kids when they read their first comic book or graphic novel!

 

Julia is adorable. She has the coolest house and she decides she would like some company so she makes a sign that acts as an invitation to every creature imaginable.

 

Her house is soon overrun with guests and chaos ensues! What's a girl to do?? Assign chores, of course.

Ghosts, mermaids, and trolls are nothing new but Ben Hatke's comes up with some original creations too. Charlotte is going through a phase where she is scared of dragons, lions, Santa so I've been careful to introduce new creatures. She loved all of these little guys and kept asking over and over again what their names were. If you think these are cute, read his Zita the Spacegirl series and then pass them on to a kid you think would love them. Or hold on to them until your kids are old enough to enjoy them!

My girl

I know she's not actually reading the words but it still makes me ridiculously happy. She loves books and being read to so I know it won't be long. I especially love how proud she is when she finishes. I can't wait to see that pride as she can do more "all by herself".

And thank you Sandra Boynton for writing such fun books that our whole family enjoys reading!!

Princesses DO wear black

There are some books that I can't wait to share with my kids. Most of them are not appropriate yet so I just have to wait but as Charlotte says "It's hard to wait."

So when I heard that Shannon Hale was coming out with a picture book, I was so excited! I've been a huge fan since I read Princess Academy and I've read almost everything she's published since.

On her blog she wrote:
"I took inspiration from The Scarlet Pimpernel, Zorro, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. She'd be a seemingly typical princess with a secret. She'd secretly be a superhero, working hard to keep her kingdom free of monsters. And like Superman needs Clark Kent, the Princess in Black would maintain a secret identity. To all the world, she is Princess Magnolia. But when trouble calls, she sheds her fluffy dresses and glass slippers, dons a black mask, leaps onto her valiant pony, and rides off to save the day!"

Buffy the Vampire Slayer? Superman?? SOLD!

As I read on, I knew I had to get this book for Charlotte AND Henry. Princesses can certainly wear black, but boys should also be allowed encouraged to read about princesses. Well, read about anything really! If girls can read about trucks and trains and construction sites, why shouldn't boys read about princesses and unicorns?

(Seriously though, you must read her blog entry about this book.)

Turned out, Shannon and her husband had written this book together and they were both coming to a local, independent bookstore near us! I told my husband we HAD to go!!

So yesterday, with both kids in tow, we went. (In hindsight, probably not the best idea. Henry was a terror.) I was giddy on the way there. And then when I saw that they were waiting around, perusing, I very awkwardly said hello to Shannon and babbled something about how I loved her books. Thankfully, she was very nice and I stopped talking.

Shannon and her husband Dean are obviously a great team. And maybe a little competitive.

They gave a lively introduction of the book and even read part of it. Each spread has full color illustrations that are adorable. The words are easy enough for little ones to understand but not babyish that a 1st or 2nd grader would be embarrassed to be seen with.

Charlotte tried hard to be patient but couldn't wait to read it.

We finally got to read it last night before bed but I don't know if we lived up to the performance these guys did. (When's the last time you saw an author dress up for their reading??)

I love that I got to share this with my daughter. She did get restless during the Q&A portion but considering she's 2 1/2, I was happy that she sat still and was attentive for the first half hour. I can't take credit for that though. It really is because Shannon and Dean Hale were so entertaining!

This is only the first of many future events like this. I can't wait!!

I know you shouldn't compare your kids but it's hard not to do. Charlotte started sitting through books fairly early. Henry, on the other hand, figured out how to crawl and then didn't want to sit still. He would get his cuddle and then he was off. You can imagine what this does to a crazy, Asian mother. Alarms started going off in my head. What if he doesn't like books? What if he grows up to be someone who doesn't like to read for fun??

Fortunately, I married someone who just laughs at my crazy instead of being bothered by it. Luke tried to interest him in books about trucks, dogs, the usual things that boys like. Nope. Books with photographs instead of illustrations. Nope. Then he tried books that have different textures. That did it! He was hooked!
 
At first, he only wanted books with different textures. Fuzzy bunny books, furry puppies, shiney, scaley fish. Fortunately, we had some of those but this one is different and probably my favorite.

It's by Xavier Deneux and he has several other books like this one. What's so clever about these is that each page has a cutout that fits into the facing page. I had originally gotten this for Charlotte since she had recently learned to count to 10. It seemed like a fun way to practice counting with her. Turns out, it's a fun book for her younger brother to explore too.

 

Happy Banned Books Week!

I look forward to Banned Books Week every year. I'm not sure why since we read just about everything in our house, so really every week could be banned books week. Maybe it's because I don't like being told what I can and can't do, especially when it comes to what I can and can't read so I revel in it. I especially like the thought of reading banned books to my kids in front of the people who wouldn't approve.

Last year I read Charlotte "And Tango Makes Three" by Justin Richardson. It's probably one that I will read to her over and over. Right now it's just a picture book about some penguins to her but I'm hoping that as she gets older, she'll get that it's about family.

This year, we read Maurice Sendak's  "In the Night Kitchen". It's just a fun book. A little strange, like a dream that didn't quite make sense but you enjoyed all the same. Apparently, the reason why people try to ban or censor it is because there's a young, naked boy in it. An illustration, not a real photo, which makes it even more ridiculous. The first time I read it to Charlotte, I was surprised she didn't point it out. She didn't seem to think it was strange that he fell out of bed, out of his clothes, and into some cake batter. The part that stuck with her was the bakers singing "Milk in the batter! Milk in the batter!"

Sendak himself didn't see what the big deal was. In his interview with Terry Gross on NPR, he said,

"Well, the hell with that. I mean, I didn't set out to cause a scandal. I set out to do a very particular work where he had to be naked in order to confront a particular dream he was in. You don't go into a dream wearing Fruit of the Loom underwear or PJs. You go tutto. You go yourself, your being, and that's why he was naked, and it was idiocy. It was incredible idiocy what went on over that book for many, many years about Mickey being naked. "

And he's right. For kids, being naked is totally normal. My 1 year old son loves it. I swear he's happier when he's not wearing pants. A friend of mine who has 2 boys told me she has a hard time keeping clothes on them. They're toddlers! They're happy and free! I see nothing wrong with it, as long as they're not peeing all over my floor, in the privacy of our own house.

So to celebrate the end of this week, we read the book morning, noon, and night. After dinner, Charlotte helped me make a couple mug cakes. Pouring the milk into the batter was her job. Cake topped with vanilla ice cream and mini chocolate chips. Then the kids took a bath. They were naked. Then they weren't. And now they're asleep, hopefully dreaming some strange but happy dream that involves cake.

There's a book for that.

When our daughter said she wanted to go to the zoo, I went to the library and found a new book about the zoo. Because that's what I do. I might be a little obsessed. Fortunately, there's a book for everything!

It's about a little girl who is afraid of the zoo but can't remember why so her family tries to help her remember and overcome her fear. It's HOW they help her that is so fun! They use everything from blankets to plastic bags to cardboard boxes to sleeping bags to go through different animals alphabetically. Each page has a more creative creation than the last. What makes it even more entertaining is that you have to guess the animal for most of them. (I was surprised how many Charlotte was able to figure out!) The whole time I was reading it, I was thinking how awesome this little girl's parents are. And that I need to brush up on my crafty skills. (There are books for that, right?)

We've now read this more than 5 times in the past 3 days and I'm still finding new details in the illustrations that I didn't notice before. Which is a good thing, because I know we're not done reading it for a while. Especially after our trip to the zoo today.

When I asked Charlotte what animal she wanted to see, she immediately said "Giraffe!" (Spoiler alert: That's letter 'G' in the book!)

Then we got home and she wanted to read it again.

I love it when I pick a winner. ^_^

Little Lottie Loves ... Little Elliot in the Big City

This blog was supposed to help me keep something of a log but life has gotten in the way lately. And by life, I mean work. Long and late hours meant I barely had enough energy to feed, bathe, and read to my kids, let alone write about it. I needed motivation. I needed a reason to keep going. Then this morning, when my daughter was begging to watch more videos of herself as a baby, I had an epiphany! Since this blog is about reading to our kids, our kids should have a special segment about the books they ask us to read over and over and over...and over again. And since they love to watch videos of themselves, what better segment than one where they're the star!




According to Little Lottie, this is a must buy!

Seriously though, I don't think there's a cuter elephant in kidlit right now. Like little kids, Elliot faces some challenges that come with being smaller than everyone else. But then he makes an unlikely friend who helps him in a way you wouldn't expect.

Little girls can be superheros too!

I received this advanced reader copy of Super Red Riding Hood by Claudia Davila from NetGalley. I just came off a binge reading day of Wonder Woman so I was all about superheros. This looked like an adorable, rated G superhero book for my daughter so we read it right away. And it is adorable! I love the illustrations. It's a different spin on the original story with a happy, not scary, message. It's about a little girl who stands up for herself, fights back, and helps those in need. Just like a real superhero! This book came at an opportune time. My daughter has suddenly had trouble sleeping, telling me "I scared!" She hides when she sees those little jumping spiders on our windows. And she won't watch Frozen because she says it's scary. She's probably the only girl in this country who feels this way. I'm hoping I can find other books like this one to help her see she can conquer her fears. Or maybe a book about a princess who is also a superhero... like Wonder Woman!

There was a little Princess

I have an aversion to princesses. Don't get me wrong. I love the Disney princess movies. When I saw the castle at Disneyland all lit up, I was a 6 year old girl again, hands clasped and teary eyed. (I was 29.) But Koreans have a saying "공주병" which translates to "Princess Disease". That's what we said about the girls who had whiney, high pitched voices, always dressed like they were going clubbing, and expected guys to pay for everything. Not attractive qualities. So when my husband said that our daughter was his "little princess", I cringed.

After further discussion, I realized this was not the type of princess my husband had in mind. (I shouldn't have been surprised. He did marry a woman who wears combat boots, owns more books than purses and shoes combined, and couldn't care less about what the Kardasians are doing.) Turns out we both thought a girl should have scraped knees, paint under her nails and grass in her hair. What was surprising was that it wasn't that hard to find books about this kind of princess!

 

 

I vaguely remembered seeing these on display at some bookstore and fortunately, my local library had them on the shelf. When I read these to my daughter, she kept shouting, "Just like me, mama!" She has a soccer ball, she has boots, she sometimes has band-aids on her knees. And she even has a little brother! I was happy to see a positive relationship there too, instead of the usual annoying little brother. I love that these books have a positive message and that my daughter immediately identified with them.

When I looked up the author's website and read the description for the book, I starting putting her other books on hold. This is the description for "Do Princesses Wear Hiking Boots?"

At the heart of Do Princesses Wear Hiking Boots? lives an energetic and contemporary child who has lots of important questions for her mom. Do princesses ride tricycles, climb trees, or have to eat the crusts of their bread? The mother's voice is timelessly reassuring as she advises her daughter that being like a princess has to do with what we are on the inside. This book offers a gentle lesson about self-acceptance, and will inspire children to leave their own mark on the world. Yes, yes, yes! The answer is yes.

These books might have to become permanent additions to our home library. We'll get this one too, to make sure our son doesn't feel left out:

Do Super Heroes Have Teddy Bears?

In the Beginning

Like most children, my 2 year old hates sleep. She was born with her eyes wide open, taking everything in. Many people, friends, family, and complete strangers, all commented on how alert she was for a newborn. While that sounds nice, my husband and I were exhausted. She fought every nap and bedtime. Some days, it was hours of rocking, singing, walking up and down the stairs, and once, when we were desperate, a quick drive around with her in my arms.

While it has gotten better, some days are still a battle. Before bed, she'll do what she can to stall and always wants "two more books". She wouldn't go down for a nap yesterday and I asked her why she wasn't sleeping. She told me "The sun is out. My eyes are open." And once we got downstairs, she said, "Read to me, mama." How can I say no to that?? I love that she loves to read! It could very well be that my very observant toddler senses this weakness and exploits it, but I don't really care. She doesn't ask to be read to just to prolong the inevitable but she wants to be read to while she eats, first thing in the morning, sometimes during diaper changes. I wants this love of books to grow so I will nurture it, I will spoil it rotten. And now that she has a little brother, I have two hungry minds to feed! So two more books it is. Lucky for them, I love reading even more than they do.