Books for Harrison!

Hey y'all I haven't posted a "baby" post in awhile. I guess I can't really call my son a baby since he is closer to a toddler now...yikes! I shared with y'all in the past some of my favorite nursery purchases so I thought I would share some of my favorite books I read to Harrison and he has grown to love. I prefer books to toys and I'll explain why and some tricks I learned along the way regarding toys. 

I'll be honest I didn't really go crazy on buying toys I know kids minds at this age are on overload and their attention span varies so toys can be a hit or miss and start to just pile up in a corner of your house.  To avoid buying a lot of unused toys or toys only used once I got a few tips. A really cool tip I got early on is that any presents received for birthdays or holidays to keep a few unopened and save them for different times of the year to keep things fresh and new. Another cool tip I got was to rotate the toys as also to keep things feeling new and fun. So this eliminates the need to buying a ton of toys and spending all of that money. 
So this brings me back to books, I have not shown the kind of control on toy buying like I have with children's books, which should come to no surprise because of my love of reading and my own book collection. Here are a few tips/tricks I like to think work best for his age group, between 6 months - 2 years:

• Like I mentioned above small children don't have the greatest attention span so books with a lot of words don't really work, they get bored quick. 
• Board books are amazing because kids can also be really rough without knowing and these are so durable. 
• I find that books that involve more interactions, like books with flaps or sliding pieces are a huge hit with my son. Also books with buttons that make sounds are so much fun. 
• Anything that rhymes or has repetition throughout the book is great and makes it easier to follow.
• My son is a huge fan of anything with animals, especially farm animals. 
• Last if the inspiration seems to be challenging on what books to get to keep your child intellectually stimulated and/or entertained then there is this great book club for kids, Literati for Kids, that I joined roughly nine months ago and it has introduced us to so many cool books I would have never thought of or found. You put your child's age and gender and from that information the box is customized each month with various books and name plates with your child's name. So cool!

Let me get right to it and list some of Harrison's and my favorite books. 

We were gifted this volume set (1 and 2) of Sandra Boynton's work and these are still read very frequently, so much that I have almost all of them memorized. Harry's absolute favorite has been "Moo, Baa, La La La." These books fall into the categories of not a lot of words, rhymes, and tons of animals so these are great for infants to toddlers. We own almost all of her books and highly recommend them. 

This one by Sandra Boynton is also fun because of all the animals and I have read it to be like a song, so Harry loves to clap and dance to it while I read. 

These next books are such a hit that when my nephew comes over the two fight over who gets to slide the cover on each page or who gets to push the buttons. Eric Carle works are well know, but these with the added "bonus" of the sliders or sound buttons are so great I almost wish every Eric Carle book had them.   

This next book was read so much that I truly believe that my son can read the word "Dada." This book may seem so simply, but it is actually very clever in how it introduces the child to the word with repetition playing a huge part. The "Mama" book I wish came in a board book as my son has already ripped a few pages and while it isn't a "cool" as "Dada" it is still a great book to help introduce children to saying and reading/recognizing words. 

Harry was gifted a huge set of these Flap books and he loves these. They are short, rhyme, and allow him to feel involved all while making each animal sound. 

These are just a few of the books my son has gotten with the monthly book club. We read these almost every night and they are soooo cute. I get to make a ton of sounds effects and we are slowly able to add more words and more facial expressions. Of course most involve animals. 

All though my son doesn't strictly stick with books here is a photo of him being oh so cute and playing with his Legos, one of his newest obsessions. And yes he has a ton of light curly hair and we still have not cut it. :)