Sally Says

Happy Birthday Tommy!

Tommy turned eight today.  That means I've been writing this blog for eight years.  The idea that I've been doing this for eight years is harder to believe than the idea that Tommy is an eight-year-old.  I seem him grow and change every day, so it really doesn't surprise me that he's as big and old and grown up as he is.  I can't really see all the ways he's changed because all of the changes have been incremental.  I guess that's why I have this blog!  If I look back, then the changes are obvious and amazing.

This week has been filled with lots of party plans.  We put together 24 goodie bags for the birthday party guests.  I always think you can tell a lot about a kid by what he chooses to put in his birthday party goodie bags (or I suppose it tells you a lot about the mom, if the kid doesn't have any input.)  For this movie-themed party, we used red and white striped popcorn bags.  I special ordered 24 of the Lego Series Six Collectable Minifigures - not yet available in stores!  We found packets of pop rocks, because pop rocks are cool.  We chose mechanical pencils and Mario Bros. stickers.  Finally, Tommy and I made Lego-shaped white chocolate candies for everybody.  I'm probably more proud of those goodie bags than I should be.  

We invited 18 kids to join us for the birthday party.  A few were well-loved younger siblings, but most were Tommy's friends from school and activities.  We had a couple of last-minute sibling additions, so it's a good thing I made extra goodie bags.  Between the extra guests and Charlie handing out goodie bags willy-nilly to random siblings who came to the door at pick up, we had exactly enough.  

We started the party with a movie.  Tommy put a lot of thought into his choice.  He finally settled on The Cat Returns a Studio Ghibli film that he really likes and thought most of his friends hadn't seen yet.  He was right.  I think only 2 or 3 of the kids had ever seen it.  I was a bit unsure of his less-than-mainstream choice, but left it up to him.  Surprisingly, most of the younger siblings were happy to watch the entire movie, even the slower beginning part.  Only three of the big kids (very active boys) and the lone three-year-old wandered off to play instead of watching the movie.  That's not bad for a rather obscure Japanese family film.

Do you see those snack trays?  Aren't they awesome?  They have a space for popcorn, a soda can cup holder and a slot for a candy bar.  I had seen them at the movie theater.  You would not believe how much effort it took to find them.  If you ever do a  movie party they're called "Movie Theater Snack Trays" and are available at Online Home Theater Accesories.

After the movie, I let the kids run amuck.  You would not believe how loud and enthusiastic 20+ kids, most of whom are almost as tall as me, can be.  They're all good kids though, so there weren't too many mishaps or dramas.  After a bit of playtime, they came in to watch Tommy open presents and eat cake and ice cream.

Everyone went home except two of Tommy's closest friends.  Chris and Gage stayed for a sleep over.  We ate pizza, played games, and were all in bed by 9 pm.  Poor Charlie thought he might get to sleep with the big boys, but he was too tired and had to go to bed early in his own room.

It was really quite nice to have the boys with us this morning, on Tommy's actual birthday.  We ate birthday breakfast biscuits and opened all of Tommy's family presents.  Chris played the Pirates of the Caribbean Theme Song on the piano while the other boys reenacted scenes from the movie.  They built legos, checked out all the presents, and bounced on the extra mattresses that we set out for them.  It was a nice way to round out Tommy's birthday.

We were all pretty wiped out for the rest of the day.  Tommy and Charli had a lot of news games and toys to play with.  David and I were still a bit shell-shocked from the party.  I went out once this afternoon to run an errand, and came home to this.

Somehow, this picture looks very grown up to me.  I expect to see boys sitting around a table with sodas, snacks and fantasy card-based games, coveting +3 broadswords, and discussing the merits of chainmail vs. leather armor for many, many years to come.  It's in their genes.  

We ended the day with a giant order of sushi from Sushi King (Tommy's choice.)  We ate it in front of the TV, and it was all gone in less than 10 minutes.  Hurray for boys!

Basketball Photo Conundrum

My new phone ensures that I always have a camera with me, but it doesn't take very good pictures, does it?  I wonder if there's something wonky with mine.  People usually rave about the quality of their iPhone 4s photos.  I have not been impressed.

I'll have to start bringing my big camera out and about with me more often.  I guess it's better to have bad photos of Charlie's Tae Kwon Do graduation and Tommy's dance class instead of no photos, but it would have been better to have have GOOD photos.  I'd hate for 2012 to be known in my family as the year of mediocre pictures.  They already think of late 2009 as the year of the missing pictures since I spilled tea on my newish laptop then and lost 6-months worth of unbacked-up photos.  It's a good thing small versions of all of them were saved on the blog!

However, it seems like sometimes I go to the trouble of bringing the big camera and it still doesn't do me much good.  Take Tommy's basketball games, for example.  I've been meaning to post something about basketball for a while now.  He's really learning a lot in the practices and is enjoying the games.  I took some videos of one game with my phone, but they're kind of "had to be there."  I'm really good at knowing what I should take pictures of.  I'm not so good at seeing the world through the lens of potential video yet.

 

TommyBBall01 from Sally Epp on Vimeo.

 

TommyBBall02 from Sally Epp on Vimeo.

 Then I brought my big camera with me to a different game, and realized I have no skill whatsoever in taking sporting event action shots.  

So then I tried taking pictures at a THIRD game with just my phone.  They're definitely not as good as the ones taken with my big camera (as you can see below.)  It's dead simple to snap a photo with my phone and then do a simple blog post straight from my phone, but then the photo isn't very good.  It becomes a lot more complicated if I want to transfer the phone pictures to my computer, edit them in any way, and then write a longer, more organized blog post like this one.  And in order to get the good pictures with my big camera, I have to plan ahead. 

Ah, technology.  I suppose it's impressive that I get ANYTHING posted, now that I have so many options.  At least we've managed to make it to most of Tommy's basketball practices and games...as well as Tommy's two dance classes, Charlie's Tae Kwon Do practices three times a week and Charlie's swimming practices.  I really do have the calendar on  my new phone to thank for that.  

Striped Belt

Charlie graduated from his Tae Kwon Do Tiny Tigers class today! He's now an official white belt in the big kid's class and has a stripe to show that he did Tiny Tigers. He's very proud of his accomplishment.

Partnering

Tommy started doing partnering in his modern dance class today! Holy cuteness Batman!

Raising Readers: Books Babies Like

This is part three in my Raising Readers series.  Part one was The Introduction.  Part two was Reading to Babies.  Stay tuned for more!

Part Three:  Ten Types of Books for Babies

There really aren't all that many types of books tailor-made for babies.  Publishers turn all sorts of books into board books, but many of them are more appropriate for toddlers than for babies.  Below, you will find the types of books that I think of as true Baby Books.  I'm sure there are a few categories that I'm missing, but these are the biggies.  

I almost always buy books as shower gifts, and I usually try to choose my purchases from these categories.  A really special shower gift, in my opinion, would be 10 books, one from each of these categories.  You never know which category a particular baby will like best.  Every baby is different.  You might be surprised by which category is your baby's favorite and which ones they don't care for, so it's a good idea to try at least one from each with your baby.

1.  Bright Primary Colors

Babies are stimulated by bright, primary colors.  They're easier to focus on in the beginning and capture a baby's attention.  I remember holding up the red page of a colors board book to Tommy was maybe 6 weeks old.  He was mesmerized, and obviously liked the red page more than any of the other pages.  

Sometimes new parents gravitate towards nostalgic, muted "babyish" colors for first books, but those aren't going to be nearly as effective as bright, in-your-face, primary colors.  There's plenty of time for muted colors later.  

It also seems to be quite helpful to have a few books around that introduce colors one at a time. Too many different colors and objects on one page can sometimes be overwhelming, so books that have one color per page are quite effective.  That's one reason Brown Bear, Brown Bear will always be a classic.

   Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? by Eric Carle

 My First Colors Board Book from DK Publishing

2.  Photographs of Other Babies' Faces

Babies love to look at faces, especially the faces of other babies.  And for some reason, they often respond better to REAL faces instead of drawings or illustrations.  Charlie wanted only books with faces in them for quite a while.  It took him months to decide that representational art was OK.  It's a good idea to have at least a couple of books from this category in your babies' library.

 Baby Faces by Margaret Miller

 Global Babies by The Global Fund for Children

3.  Songs

Many babies love it when you sing to them.  Some don't.  Tommy hated it when I tried to sing to him as a baby, probably because he associated it with "PLEASE go to sleep you stubborn child."  It was a huge blow to this choir-girl's ego.  However, he'd happily let me sing if there was a book to go along with the song.  

Books of illustrated songs just seem so appropriate for little babies.  Sometimes, if you have a baby who has no interest in books, they'll pay attention to a song book, especially if it's a silly song or a lullaby.  I think this is because it's impossible to sing-read a song book in a boring monotone.  If you're a parent who struggles with feeling self-conscious about reading animatedly, then song books can help you.  Plus, song books have a longer developmental shelf-life than most baby books.  They capture babies' attention, but continue to be interesting to older children who can practice their pre-literacy skills by matching the familiar song lyrics to the illustrations.  We love song books in our house.

 Hush Little Baby by Marla Frazee

 Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star bySylvia Long

4.  Object Identification

I suspect that children who are destined to grow up to be mathematicians, scientists, librarians or engineers love these books the best as babies.  I used to think they were universal, but have since realized that they tend to be rather love-it-or-hate-it.  Tommy loved this sort of "point, identify and categorize" book.  Seriously.  He would spend HOURS with these books, pointing at things and wanting me to repeat the nouns over and over and over again.  Charlie couldn't have cared less.  He thought these books were boring.  He wanted plot and character and rhythm.  He wanted photos, but they had to be of babies doing things, not animals, trucks or objects.  Interesting, don't you think?  It's worth trying this sort of book with your baby, because they're good for vocabulary building.  Just be aware that they might not be the right sort of book for him (or her.)  

 The Everything Book by Denise Fleming

 My Big Animal Book by Roger Priddy

5.  Rhythmic Language

There's a reason so many children's books are written in rhyming verse.  Children love rhythm, meter and rhyme.  Poetic language turns a book into a kind of a song.  The sing-song quality of a good rhythmic story will capture a baby's attention.  All language starts out as a haze of background noise for babies, so when you read something with rhythm, meter, structure, repetition, alliteration or rhyming words you create order out of the sound chaos.  This builds new neural pathways, paving the way for language development.  It's good for them, and they like it too!  It doesn't even matter what the book is about -- meaning and understanding comes later.  For babies, it's all about the sound of your voice and the patterns of the language.

 Everywhere Babies by Susan Meyers

 Jamberry by Bruce Degan

6.  Touch & Feel Books

Babies are very tactile.  They're learning about the world with all their senses.  Yes, putting things in their mouths goes along with this.  They like to feel and taste everything.  That's why it's important to have a few washable cloth books available.  Be sure to add some traditional books with touch & feel elements as well as washable cloth books to your babies' library.  They can finger the tags, touch the bumpy ladybugs, rub the scratchy spots, suck on the sticking out bits and crinkle the textured pages.  Touch and feel books are just as much toys as they are books, and that's a good thing.

 Fuzzy Bee and Friends by Roger Priddy

 Ten Little Ladybugs by Melanie Gerth  

7.  Interactive Books

It takes a bit of practice to figure out which books fit into this category.  We adults tend to approach books in one way.  We pick one up, start reading on the first page, read each page in order, and don't pause for interruptions.  Young children don't have that framework yet, so it's good to remember to think outside the box while reading to them.  

I think that almost any baby book can become an interactive book.  Turning a book into an opportunity for interaction takes practice, however, and there are some books that help grown ups figure out how to do it.  While you're reading them, don't just read the words.  Touch baby's fingers, toes, nose, etc.  Don't just read the words "peek a boo!"  Cover your face and do it!  Babies love to play "this little piggie" and there are book versions of the very same sorts of interactive games.  Just be sure to DO IT.  Don't just read the words.

 Piggies by Audrey and Don Wood

 Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes by Mem Fox

8.  Animal Sounds

Moo!  Baa!  Honk!  It's impossible to read a book with funny sound words in a quiet, boring way.  That's probably why so many baby books have animal sounds in them.  It's not that babies like the word moo better than the word marsupial.  It's that they like the way we say the word moo better.  Besides, making a 6-month-old giggle when you quack like a duck is very, very fun.

 Who Said Moo? by Harriet Ziefert

 Moo, Baa, La La La! by Sandra Boynton

9.  Bedtime

Having a bedtime routine in the early days is pretty impossible, but you can do it even if they don't sleep exactly when you want them to.  Just pick a time and do the same things every evening.  They'll get it eventually.  We read Goodnight Moon every single night for over a year with each boy.  It doesn't really have to be a book about bedtime, because it's the repetition of exactly the same routine night after night that's important.  There are so many good books about bedtime out there though, that you might as well choose one of them.  

 Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown

 Pajama Time! by Sandra Boynton

10.  Lift-the-Flap Books

This last category is a bit less perfectly suited for babies.  The books are great, and babies love the element of surprise and interactive process of lifting the flaps.  It's just that the flaps can become an issue.  Stock up on book tape for repairs, and consider your lift-the-flap books good practice books for treating books gently.  Hopefully you won't have too many disasters, and by the time your baby is one she'll be a pro at carfully lifting those flaps without ripping them. 

 Peek-a-Who? by Nina Laden

 Where is Baby's Belly Button? by Karen Katz

And that's it!  

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Here's a PDF version of this list - 10 Types of Books for Babies.  I thought you might need one to print out, and I'd already put the bib. together for that talk I gave at Charlie's preschool.

Download Raising Readers: Babies 

It's the same information that I just wrote about, only condensed into one printable page.  :)