Tales of Life with a Girl on the Go

We read many books today:

• Ten Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed by Ann Love, I think Reid and I both would have been happy if she’d stuck to only five monkeys but maybe the publisher wanted people to think that they were getting their money’s worth;
• The True Story of Humpty Dumpty by Sarah Hayes, an always-welcome book;
• Once Upon a Time by John Prater, with it’s many allusions to notice and discuss;
• Chirp, November 2000, The Cats Issue, shared by Cousin Danielle;
• Ella Sarah Gets Dressed by Margaret Chodos-Irvine, a book that Reid had been asking about for a few days but for which I kept forgetting to look. Ella Sarah leads her life her way and that is something Reid admires;
• Two Eggs, Please by Sarah Weeks, Reid loves eggs and this book talks about them and people being the different and yet the same and so how could we not read it twice? We couldn’t;
• Clarabella’s Teeth by An Vrombaut, we need to do better with teethbrushing and I thought a little reading would help;
• Corduroy by Don Freeman, the illustrations in the first book in the series show it’s age – it was written in 1968 – but only that we see a well dressed young lady with white gloves. The story is timeless;
• Click, Clack, Quackity-Quack by Doreen Cronin, feeding Reid’s need for alphabet books;
• Dad Mine by Dawn Apperley, at the supper table (I can’t remember why we were reading at supper) and Reid was comparing the picture of the daddy in the book to her daddy. Reid’s daddy is way cuter;
• No Haircut Today! by Elivia Savadier, not Ken’s favourite of this batch of library books but Reid is fond of it;
• Little Fish, Lost by Nancy Van Laan, with bright illustrations by Jane Conteh-Morgan;
• This Is the Hat: A story in rhyme by Nancy Van Laan;
• Green Eggs and Ham by Dr Seuss, which causes Reid to prompt many times – “try it” as the not-Sam character refuses the eggs over and over; and
• Little Bear Paints the Farm (no author), twice, because Reid likes to see the farm animals being painted and maybe because she was delaying lights-out.

Mon
I Have to Go
David’s Father

It was a day full of books and I feel like I should state that we do other things with Reid other than read. She and I went out for breakfast and shopping in the morning and in the afternoon she and Ken built with Legos and wooden blocks and also played with playdough. Still, we read:

• Stephanie’s Ponytail and Jonathan Cleaned Up and Then He Heard a Sound by Robert Munsch, both from the Munsch Treasury Reid had me pick up as we left her room in the morning;
• The Cat in the Hat at bedtime and The Cat in the Hat Comes Back after our naptime by Dr Seuss. It doesn’t matter if you read them out of order, they still make sense;
• How Do Dinosaurs Learn Their Colors? by Jane Yolen, and, yes, it was hard to spell colour without the “u”. This book would be good for the dinosaur-obsessed kid since it contains the names of each of the dinosaurs pictured and maybe that will be Reid one day, she did have me repeat the names a couple of times;
• Blue Hat, Green Hat by Sandra Boynton, a book that, technically, Reid read to me as she provided all of the words;
• A Dragon in a Wagon by Jane Belk Moncure, which is a primer on transportation and given my previous work, it seems like I should impart this knowledge;
• When Will It be Spring? by Catherine Walters, Reid and I enjoy this one. It makes me think of when Reid wakes up and asks if it is “waking up time”. I am not sure why Reid likes it;
• The First Day of Winter by Denise Fleming, a counting book that seemed appropriate as we are getting still more snow today and it is about a snowman’s “… 2 bright blue mittens and a red hat with a gold snap”;
• The Pigeon Finds a Hot Dog! by Mo Willems, I love the dialogue between the duckling and the pigeon and the fact that the pigeon shares even though he never intended to;
• Sheep in a Jeep by Nancy Shaw, a silly rhyme with pretty pencil drawings;
• Mouse Count by Ellen Stoll Walsh, who also wrote Mouse Paint. Ken considers this book a bit dark since it is about a snake who counts mice as he puts them into a jar with the intention of eating them (but they escape). Reid didn’t seem particularly interested in the storyline;
• Portable Universe: Sun, illustrated by Sabrina Orlando, a poem that talks about the relationship between the earth and the sun in terms of seasons, the length of the year, etc.; and
• Good Night, Little One by Salina Yoon, for once as the last book before we shut the light out.

I “discovered” a stack of library books on a bookcase today and most of what we read was from the pile:

• Touch and Feel Tractor (no author), a book which we have had for a long time but it still brings a smile to Reid’s face as she polishes the smooth tractor hood and the nobby tire and so on;
• No Haircut Today! by Elivia Savadier, which I chose hoping that it would be about a child who ultimately decides that a haircut isn’t so bad after all. Not so, unfortunately for me;
• Hi, Harry! The moving story of how one slow tortoise slowly made a friend by Martin Waddell, a book that is either sad or inspiring because the tortoise makes friends with a snail after being ignored by a bunch of fast-moving animals and one can’t be sure if he was settling or finding an ideal chum;
• Does a Kangaroo Have a Mother, too? by Eric Carle, a book that we read as a sort of a call and response where I ask the question and Reid supplies the response;
• Green Eggs and Ham by Dr Seuss and I like the lesson that one should try things before rejecting them;
• I’ll Always Come Back! by Steve Metzger, which as I think I have mentioned doesn’t have enough scenes with daddies;
• Giddy-up! Let’s Ride! by Flora McDonnell, with children riding horses, camels and elephants; and
• Princess Bun Bun by Richard Scrimger, a book set in the Castle Towers condominium and a little girl’s imagination fills in the details to make the fairy tale come alive with a monster, a witch and a princess.

 In addition to the alphabet books that we read most every each morning, we read:

• Olivia’s Opposites and Olivia Counts with illustrations from Ian Falconer’s other books, two books that have been lurking on our shelf just waiting to be chosen;
• One Fish, Two Fish, Red fish, Blue Fish by Dr Seuss, read by Ken – I love to hear him read books that he seems to enjoy;
• The Very Bad Bunny by Marilyn Sadler, a book that tells the story of a bunny who accidentally is “bad” and another who is bad for the sheer joy of it. I am not sure what the moral of the story is, though; and
• Because I Love You So Much by Guido van Genechten, which demonstrates that a mother’s love isn’t judgemental, or isn’t when she is forced to consider things.